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j^^ie Academy System of the 
State of New York 



By 

GEORGE FREDERICK MILLER 

H 



Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of 

Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Philosophy, 

Columbia University 



ALBANY 

J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS 

1922 



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Gift 

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PREFACE 



Of the several state systems of academies established in the United 
States during the early national period, the one evolved by the State 
of New York is usually considered to have been the most judicious 
and successful. It is the aim of this monograph to present the most 
important facts, collected from available sources, concerning the 
academy system of the State of New York from its origin in 1787 
to the close of the nineteenth century ; and to organize those facts in 
a way that will make evident their significance. 

There seems to have been no very close connection between the 
secondary schools of colonial New York and the system of academies 
organized by the State. The schools of the colony, with rare excep- 
tions, were not supported by the government, and so far as the 
administrative aspect was concerned the State had to organize its 
system dc novo. However, in order to show some relation in cur- 
riculum and aim between the schools of the colonial period and those 
that developed later, an introductory chapter on the educational 
situation prior to the organization of the State, based upon the 
investigations of Brown, Clews, Kemp, and Kilpatrick and others as 
indicated by the references, has been included. This chapter differs 
from the rest of the monograph in not having been written from 
the sources, and in not dealing directly with the academy system. It 
has been inserted to make the whole more intelligible to readers who 
may not be familiar with thfe writings upon which it is based and who 
do not have convenient access to them. 

The close of the nineteenth century has been chosen as a limit of 
the treatment of the subject, because by that time the typical old 
time academies had nearly all disappeared, and even those that were 
operating under charters of former periods had changed in their 
plans and purposes. A new type of academy had developed to meet 
the many and various demands of a more complex society. Public 
high schools, which had become very numerous and which were 
giving instruction to nearly eighty-five percent of the secondary 
pupils in the State had supplanted the academy system. The latter, 
although not formally abolished, was really extinct by the beginning 
of the twentieth century. 

A work by Dr. Walter John Gifford entitled " History of the 
New York High School System " to be published in the near future 

[3l 



4 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

deals with the academy system from another point of view, and 
contains information on phases of the history of secondary education 
in the State not inckided in this monograph. 

This pubhcation was written in 1915, and was to have been printed 
as a part of the annual report of the University of the State of 
New York. But due to the disturbed conditions brought about by 
the World War the printing of this monograph has been delayed, 
and it is now published as a reprint of the 132nd annual report of 
that institution. 

It IS a pleasure to acknowledge the valuable advice of Professors 
Paul Monroe and William H. Kilpatrick ; the kind encouragement 
of Dr. John H. Findley, Dr. Frank P. Graves. Dr. Thomas E. 
Finegan, and Dr. Henry L. Taylor ; the helpful cooperation of Dr. 
Walter John Gifford ; and the friendly suggestions of Mr. Tien 
Toh Liu. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter I Page 

Educational Conditions in New York before the Revolution 7 

The academy period in the United States. Political and economic 
status of the province of New York. Schools and education. 

Chapter II 

Legal Status of the Academies of the State of New York 19 

The genesis of legal provision for academies. Estabhshment of the 
Regents of the University of the State of New York. The act of 1784. 
The act of 1787. Subsequent acts relating to the University. Ordi- 
nances of Regents. Legislation directly affecting academies. Consti- 
tutional provisions. Summary. 

Chapter III 

Relation of Academies to Other Schools 31 

Numerous kinds of schools. Definition of the typical academy. 
Private, select, and unincorporated schools. Development of a free 
secondary school. Monitorial high schools. Manual labor schools. 
Elementary schools; their rivalry with academies. High schools in 
conflict with academies. Academies regarded as public. Growth of 
the conception of a " free academy " or high school. Transition of 
public support from academies to high schools. The law of 1853. 
Similarity of academies and high schools. Numerical relation of acad- 
emies and high schools at various periods. Relation of colleges and 
academies. 

Chapter IV 

Development and Support of Incorporated Academies 65 

Close relation of support and development. Sources of revenue of 
academies. State aid to academies in the form of public lands. Loans 
and state appropriations. Establishment of permanent funds. The 
Literature Fund. The United States Deposit Fund. Incorporations, 
admissions, and growth of academies. Proportion of revenues from 
various sources. General tax law of 1872. The last stand of the old 
time academy. Support by tuition. Number of academies and 
attendance in them at various periods. Development of a new type 
of academy. Data concerning individual academies. Continuity of 
academies. Statistical summary of academies in the University 
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 

Chapter V 

Curriculums and Methods loi 

Authority to prescribe curriculum delegated to Regents by the act 
of 1787. This authority first exercised in 1817. Modification according 
to the act of 1827. Early curriculum and entrance requirements. 
Summary of subjects for entrance and curriculums required by law and 
ordinance during the nineteenth century. Subjects reported to have 
been taught by academies. Comparison of early curriculums of academies 
and those of Latin grammar schools. Relation between the subjects 
required and those reported to have been taught. Continuity and 
development of subjects. Tables of the various subjects taught at 
different periods. Methods of instruction. Aims and psychological 
theories. Drills. Lectures. Incentives. Rote against reason. Ana- 
lytical method. Questions. Devices and special methods. Apparatus 
and equipment. Miscellaneous notions. Daily routine. Conclusions. 

[5] 



CONTENTS 



Chapter VI Page 

Educating Teachers for the Common Schools 131 

Present interest in the problem. Incidental teacher-training during 
the early period. Experimental period : 1827-1849. The two opposing 
views. Provisions of 1835. Law of 1838. System abandoned: 1843- 
1849. Results accomplished before 1849. Teacher-training in acad- 
emies permanently established in 1849. Failure of normal schools to 
meet needs. Modification of the laws. Efficiency of the system as 
measured by statistical results; as measured by contemporary opinions. 
Decline of teacher-training work in academies. Conclusion. 

Chapter VII 

Comparisons and Conclusions 172 

Historical data and facts. The academy period. Educational facil- 
ities afforded by academies. Significance of instruction given by acad- 
emies. Innovations introduced in academies. Religious instruction. Con- 
ditions that contributed to the results of the academy system. Organi- 
zation: a part of the Universit3^ Slow development of the free school 
system. Effects of democracy. Population of the State considered. 
Influence of academies on later educational developments. 

Bibliography 1 79 



The Academy System of the State of New York 

CHAPTER I 

Educational Conditions in New York Before the Revolution 

With the growth of democracy and the rise of a middle class of 
people after the Revolutionary War, came a type of secondary 
school, which was better adapted than the Latin grammar school 
of the colonial period to the new political and economic conditions. 
Throughout the Nation until after the Civil War, the academy was 
the chief institution for preparing pupils for college, and for fur- 
nishing the means of a general cultural education beyond the elemen- 
tary branches. But in no state of the Union were academies estab- 
lished in such great numbers and supported so well, in no state did 
they reach such a high degree of development and continue to domi- 
nate the field of secondary education so long as in New York. 

An explanation of the factors that contributed to this result in 
New York will be attempted in the following chapters. A brief 
sketch of the educational situation in New Netherland and colonial 
New York is, however, first required to furnish an adequate under- 
standing of later developments. 

The commercial character of the first Dutch control of New 
Netherland, the activity and influence of the official church, the 
change to English rule and the resulting division of languages, insti- 
tutions, and religions were all closely connected with the schools and 
the educational interests of the times. 

Political and Economic Status of the Province 

A charter, which conferred upon the company complete civil power 
in New Netherland except the right to negotiate international agree- 
ments, was granted to the Dutch West India Company in 1621. The 
States-General of the United Netherlands, which granted the privi- 
lege, had the power to amend the charter in any way, but this right 
was seldom exercised, and the company enjoyed almost unlimited 
control until the advent of the English in 1664. 

The company acted through its lord directors, who in turn chose 

[7] 



8 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OE THE STATE OE NEW YORK 

a director general and a council as their representatives and local 
authorities. The latter were given extensive but indefinite political 
power in the colony. They used their own judgment in all matters 
not especially determined by their superiors, and became the chief 
factor in the government of the province. 

During the Dutch regime, nine villages were incorpo^'ated in what 
is now the State of New York. Their administration and general 
local control were placed in the hands of the burgomasters and 
schepens ; but the powers of these village officials were extremely 
limited. They were chosen by the director general, who reserved 
the right to annul almost any measure adopted by them. It is evi- 
dent that the Dutch government in New Netherland was in no 
respect democratic, for neither the municipal nor colonial officers 
were elected by popular vote.^ 

Under English rule, New York was a royal province ; the gov- 
ernor was appointed by the king of England, a legislature was chosen 
by the citizens of the province, and the villages were given more 
freedom. Although no law was valid unless sanctioned by the king 
or his representative, the English system of government contained 
some elements of a democracy, especially in local matters. 

The economic status of New Netherland and the character of the 
inhabitants are indicated by the fact that the Dutch West India Com- 
pany was a commercial enterprise, and was not interested pri- 
marily in colonization and education. The settlers, however, estab- 
lished permanent homes, and sought a normal domestic life such as 
they had been accustomed to in Holland. Since the total number 
of them, until after the English occupation, was small and they 
were divided into several communities, there could not have been 
very many in any one place. In 1623 a number of settlements, each 
consisting of a few families, were made. Seven years later New 
Netherland had about 500 inhabitants, and in 1660 the population 
was estimated at 6000.^ At the close of the century, the number 
had increased to 25,000, and in 1714 the population was probably 
about 45,000.^ According to the first census of the United States 
(1790), the inhabitants of New York numbered 340,121. 



* Kilpatrick, The Dutch Schools of New Netherland and Colonial New 
York, chap, i ; chap. 5, p. 78, 79, 80. Clews, Educational Legislation and 
Administration of the Colonial Governments, p. 198 ff. 

" Kilpatrick, op. cit., p. 13. 

' Kemp, The Support of Schools in Colonial New York by the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, p. 64. 



CONDITIONS IN NEW YORK STATE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 9 

Schools and Education 

The charter of the West India Company did not require that 
schools should be established, but the States-General later probably 
insisted that schools be maintained. It is certain that after 1638 
the company contributed to the support of schools in the province, 
and thus recognized its obligations. The influence of the Reformed 
Dutch Church was a prominent factor in promoting education in 
New Netherland ; in fact, the church and the state were so closely 
connected in educational affairs that the duties of the two were 
never clearly differentiated. 

Except for New Amsterdam and the outlying villages, it was a 
common practice for the company through its officials to elect the 
masters of the schools, and to pay a part of their salaries. The 
church passed upon the religious qualifications of the prospective 
teachers, and supervised that part of the instruction pertaining to 
religion. The local civil authorities generally provided the school 
building as well as a house for the teacher, fuel and other supplies. 
All patrons except the poorest paid a small fee, which the master 
received as part of his compensation.* 

Under English rule government support of Dutch elementary 
schools was confined to municipal initiative. In most of the Dutch 
villages public support continued, and took various forms. In 
Bergen, now in New Jersey, and probably in Kingston, a tax for the 
support of the schools was assessed. Rents from school lands, pub- 
lic subscriptions, and other means were common. The practice of 
charging rate bills was continued practically without exception 
throughout the colonial period. Although the English provided no 
state support for elementary schools, and only limited aid to sec- 
ondary schools, yet governors enforced certain certification require- 
ments. During the first few years of English rule, licenses to teach 
were granted by the governor. After 1686, teachers coming from 
England were required to be licensed by the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, or later by the Bishop of London. Governor Cornbury, dur- 
ing the six years of his administration (1702-8), would permit no 
Dutch schoolmaster to teach without a license from him. His suc- 
cessors, however, were more lenient in this respect. 

The transition from Dutch to English rule, 1664, had a far-reach- 
ing effect upon educational interests. The Dutch system of schools 
was adapted to a close cooperation between church and state, and 



* Kilpatrick, op. cit, p. 228. 



10 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NE\V YORK 

when the change in government took place the schools were left 
with only the church, except in villages that had been granted special 
charters, and were not readily modified to meet the new situation. 
Neither the Dutch church nor school received support from the 
English government. Furthermore, a conflict in languages and 
religions arose when the English settlers came. In many cases, the 
support of a community that had previously been concentrated upon 
one school and church came, sooner or later, to be divided. In 
sparsely settled villages this tended toward weakness and inefficiency. 
The Dutch conservatives could not foresee the inevitable predomi- 
nance of the English language, and so hampered progress by cling- 
ing to a waning tongue and decadent customs.^ Evidence of such a 
condition in New York is to be found in the following : 

The presence of two languages in New York City must have operated to 
the injury of the cause of education within the city. . . . Had the system 
of municipal schools been retained after 1674, giving instruction, however, 
in both languages, the transition from the Dutch to the English language 
could have been made with greater ease and with far less hurt to the Dutch 
church; and New York City would have gained a full hundred years in the 
development of its school system." 

It seems that some Dutch schools used English as early as 1708, 
while others clung to their own language until 1780; so the struggle 
to perpetuate the Dutch language lasted the greater part of the 
century.'^ This change was slow and gradual, and it was not until 
after the middle of the eighteenth century that English was used 
extensively in these schools. 

In some instances, however, the conflict in l)eliefs, customs, and 
languages may have evoked a greater effoit in educational affairs. 
In 175s the school of the Reformed Dutch Church in New York 
City secured a teacher from Holland who was, presumably, a more 
able man for the position than any teacher in the colony, and was 
paid a much higher salary than was then customary. This effort 
to improve the school represented an attempt to check the tendency 
toward the English language. But it was an improvement that was 
in opposition to the trend of events, and hence soon dwindled and 
disappeared.^ It seems that the rivalry of religious sects aroused 
increased activity and interest in at least one school in Albany, in 
which the representative of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel made a special effort to increase the attendance of his school.^ 



" Kemp, op. cit., p. 67. 

* Kilpatrick, op. cit, p. 159. 

' Ibid., p. 204, 208. 

" Ibid., p. 154, 155- 

*Ibid., p. 203. Kemp, op. cit., p. 198, 199. 



CONDITIONS In NEW YORK STATE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION II 

The Dutch probably had no official public school in New Nether- 
land before 1638. Before that time at least some of the children 
were very likely taught privately or in a private school. Consider- 
ing the antecedents of the colonists, it is reasonable to suppose that 
not all the children were allowed to grow up for fifteen years with- 
out any instruction in reading and religion.^" During the next 
twenty-six years of Dutch supremacy, practically every village was 
supplied with an elementary school, which was under joint control 
of church and state. The masters were usually also employed by 
the church as choristers and visitors of the sick. Other occupations 
through which the teachers often undertook to supplement their 
meager salaries, were clerk, bell ringer, janitor for the church, 
sexton, court secretary and messenger. The teacher of the school 
of the Dutch Reformed Church in New York City in 1755 was paid 
$350 a year, which was considered a very high salary and which was 
later reduced." In addition to their regular salaries, house rent and 
fuel were furnished to the masters. 

For the most part, what English elementary schools there were in 
the colony during the eighteenth century were private enterprises, 
or were maintained by religious organizations. The Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, an organization 
within the Church of England, was especially active in supporting 
schools in New York. Ministers and missionaries of the society 
supervised the schools, and sometimes taught in them as a means of 
additional support. The charity school in the city of New York, 
afterward Trinity School, was the first supported by the society, 
and was typical of all such schools. The pay of the teachers, always 
low, was provided in part by the society and partly by the com- 
munity benefited by the school.^^ The curriculum of these schools, 
with some rare exceptions, was confined to the three R's and the 
church catechism. Great emphasis was placed upon religious instruc- 
tion.^^ In regard to subject matter, the same thing might be said 
of the Dutch schools ; the three R's and religion were practically all 
that was taught. It seems that both English and Dutch schools 
offered ample opportunity for the elementary education of girls as 
well as boys.** 



' Kilpatrick, op. cit., chap. 3. 
Kilpatrick, op. cit., p. 155, 156. 
' Kemp, op. cit., p. 124, 125, 129. 
' Ibid., chap. 12. 
' Ibid., p. 265, 266. Kilpatrick, op. cit., p. 228. 



12 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

The number of elementary schools in New York City in 1741 
was eight, in 1745, twelve; and by 1762 the number had increased 
to fifteen. Among the last mentioned there were one Hebrew and 
two French schools; the maximum number of Dutch schools was^^ 
three, and in 1761 the English had thirteen.^^ ' There are no statistics 
showing the number of schools in the whole colony, but Kemp gives 
the following opinion : " There is a basis for believing that between 
1740 and 1775 both the city and the province enjoyed school facil- 
ities probably comparable with the other provinces, except those of 
New England." 

Other schools, both English and Dutch, were conducted by private 
teachers. Before the advent of the English these were, of course, 
all Dutch ; but the Dutch gradually disappeared, and at the time of 
the Revolution most of them were English. These private institu- 
tions differed in several significant respects from those fostered by 
the churches. They were free from sectarian limitations and the 
necessity of teaching a catechism. They were at liberty to modify 
their curriculums so as to include any subject for which there was 
a demand. Some of them extended their courses beyond the elemen- 
tary branches, but as a rule not in a way that made them Latin 
grammar schools. Needle-work and many other accomplishments 
were taught the girls ; while courses in navigation, surveying and 
languages were offered for young men. It was the purpose of the 
sectarian schools to serve the church by training able leaders and 
faithful followers ; whereas the private schools were interested in 
meeting any popular demand for vain or useful learning. The two 
classes of schools differed in clientele as well as in curriculums. The 
sectarian schools could teach only those who would tolerate a certain 
religious doctrine, while the others appealed to people of all creeds 
and also to those of no particular belief. But the private institutions 
were not supported by charity, and for this reason were probably 
more expensive and more select. They were often so small and 
irregular that they resembled a system of tutoring rather than schools. 
An advertisement in a newspaper in 1755 indicates a school of the 
latter kind. It reads: 

" Writing, Arithmetick, Merchants Accounts, Navigation, Surveying, 
Mensuration, Guaging, Dialing, and Astronomy, etc. regularly taught by 
James Bragg, at the foot of Pot-Baker's Hill, in one of Mr. Peck's new 
houses; where there is a commodious Room for Young Gentlemen, to be 



* Kemp, op. cit, p. 78. 



CONDITIONS IN NEW YORK STATE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION I3 

instructed in any of the Branches of Mathematics, retired from those that are 

only taught, Reading, Writing, and Arithmetick. Due attention will be given 
to Young Gentlemen and Ladies at their Houses if required, Gentlemen 
Sailors and others, are taught Navigation in a short time and reasonable." " 

Secondary schools in colonial New York were few and poorly 
attended, and for the most part depended upon private enterprise. 
Until the middle of the eighteenth century the Latin grammar school 
was practically the only kind of secondary school. However, this 
kind of institution was never established in all parts of the colony 
by a general law ; for this reason the transition to academies was 
easy. The change was made by gradually broadening the curricu- 
lum of the grammar school, and by including in its purpose an educa- 
tion of immediate value as well as a preparation for college entrance. 

From 1652 to the time of the English occupation, a period of 
about twelve years, the Dutch maintained an ofificial Latin school; 
but it was interrupted for five years, 1654 to 1659, and also from 
1661 to 1662. The West India Company exercised about the same 
degree of control over this school as it did over the schools of 
elementary grade in New Amsterdam. The master's salary was 
paid partly by the company, partly by the city, and partly by parents 
whose children attended it. Three different masters, each serving 
about two years, were employed for the few years that the school 
was continued. It seemed to have been in a flourishing condition 
and to have given promise of developing into a college when the over- 
throw of the Dutch government brought it to a close. In every 
respect, it was doubtless a typical Latin grammar school.^'' 

From 1664 until the establishment of the colonial Latin grammar 
school by a law passed in 1702, there was no school supported by 
the government. Meanwhile a number of private Latin schools 
appeared ; and after a few years passed out of existence. Some of 
these were sectarian institutions ; all of them were small and weak, 
and the last one was closed probably in 1688.^^ The province may 
have been without a Latin school from that time until the one pro- 
vided for in 1702 was opened in 1704. 

Under the leadership of Cornbury, who was governor of New 
York Colony from 1702 to 1708, an act was passed (1702) providing 
for a Latin grammar school in the city of New York, The dominant 
influence of the Church of England is indicated by the act repeating 



" New York Weekly Post Boy, March 31, 1755. Quoted by Kemp, op. 
cit., p. 264. 

" Kilpatrick, op. cit., chap. 6. 

"Brown, The Making of Our Middle Schools, p. 53. Boone, Education 
in the United States, p. 53, 



14 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

the general requirements for teachers in specifying that the master 
must obtain a license from " the Bishop of London or the Governor 
or Commander in Chief of this Province." ^^ The school was opened 
in 1704, and continued for five years or longer. The master received 
50 pounds a year from the government and fees from his students, 
which were about thirty-three in number.^" 

Incomplete records show the existence of a private grammar 
school in New York City from 1716 to 1722; some teaching of Latin 
in New Rochelle for an indefinite period ; and a private grammar 
school in New York City in 1731. Details concerning the curricu- 
lums and the pupils of these schools are lacking.^^ 

In 1732 a school for instruction in Latin, Greek and mathematics 
was established in New York City by the colonial government, and 
was made free to twenty boys selected from the various political 
divisions of the province. It was not continued after 1738, and was 
the last attempt of the colonial government to support a secondary 
school.^^ It seems that this was the first instance in the province of 
pupils being admitted to a secondary school free of all tuition charges. 

It is stated that from 1741 to 1762 from one to two private gram- 
mar schools were in operation in the city of New York.^^ Since 
King's College opened a preparatory school in 1763 to fit students 
for entrance to the college, evidently the city of New York was 
supplied with a secondary school of some kind practically all of the 
eighteenth century. After 1740 Latin schools and other types of 
secondary schools were opened in a number of villages, and a few 
of them were continued into the nineteenth century. Some of these 
places were: Hempstead, where a grammar school was kept from 
1742 to 1779; Rye; New Rochelle; Schenectady, where a Latin 
school, begun in 1771, was later expanded into an academy; Claver- 
ack ; Salem ; Goshen ; and Kingston, where an academy was founded 
in 1774.^* 

No evidence is found to indicate that previous to the middle of 
the eighteenth century any of the secondary schools were very much 
like an academy. The principal subject matter was Latin, with 
occasionally Greek and mathematics ; which means that they were 
generally Latin grammar schools. However, before the Revolution, 



" Clews, op. cit., p. 235. 

" Kemp, op. cit., p. 72, 73. 

" Ibid., p. 73, 74, 161. 

^'^ Brown, op. cit., p. 94; Kemp, op. cit., p. 73. 

^ Kemp, op. cit., p. 75. 

^* References to these are found on pages 17 and 18. 



CONDITIONS IN NEW YORK STATE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 1$ 

the conception of a secondary school, giving instruction in a wide 
range of subjects of immediate practical value, began to find 
expression. 

One writer, probably William Livingston, suggested that two 
grammar schools be maintained in each county ; not only to prepare 
pupils for college entrance, but to instruct those who could not hope 
for a college education. ^^ The significant part of that suggestion 
is that secondary schools should have a broader function than prepa- 
ration for college, a characteristic of the nineteenth century acad- 
emies. Another tendency toward the academy is seen in the private 
and tutorial institutions that extended their curriculums freely to 
supply all popular demands.^® Later a number of institutions began 
as grammar or classical schools, and by a change in curriculum and 
aim were transformed into the academy type. For example, the 
Latin school at Schenectady opened by the Rev. William Andrews 
in 1771, and continued by the Rev. John Doty until 1777 was one of 
the first places where such a change was contemplated. Mr Andrews 
outlined his plan as follows : 

I lately took the Liberty of acquainting You, that I had opened a Gram- 
mar School in this Town, and since that, I have determined on forming it 
into an Academy, and propose giving Instruction in Reading, Writing, 
Arithmetic, Geography and Histoi-y to those who may be designed to fill 
the Stations of active Life, exclusive of those who may be taught the Learned 
Languages — Bookkeeping, and Merchants accounts to fit them for Business, 
and the Mechanic Arts." 

We do not know to what extent this plan was carried out. The 
Rev. J. G. Gebhard's classical school at Claverack, begun in 1776, 
developed into Washington Seininary 3 years later. Washington 
Academy at Salem, one of the most prominent secondary schools 
in the State during the nineteenth century, was the outgrowth of a 
classical school that dates from 1780. Another important academy 
of the following century, Farmers' Hall, grew out of Noah Web- 
ster's classical school at Goshen, which was opened in 1784. 

It is notable that the earliest academies were an extension and 
enlargement of the Latin grammar schools in both purpose and 
curriculum, and not a substitute for them. The academies under- 



=" The Independent Reflector, November 8, 1753. Quoted by Pratt, Annals 
of Public School Education in the State of New York. 

■' Cf . p. 12 and 13. 

" Correspondence of the Rev. William Andrews to Sir William Johnson, 
Documentary History of New York, v. 4, p. 470. Quoted by Kemp, op. cit, 
p. 203. 



l6 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

took all the work of the grammar schools and, in addition, gave 
instruction in many subjects without any reference to college require- 
ments. There was no conflict resulting in the extermination of the 
old and the rise of the new, but simply an absorption of the old by 
the new. 

A number of factors contributed to the rise of academies, but it is 
impossible to say which one was the most important. It seems that 
the laws of 1704 and 1732 could have had no considerable influence 
in bringing about the change, because the schools created by them 
were not similar to academies either in support, organization, cur- 
riculum or aim. But private institutions, free to experiment and to 
broaden their curriculums to meet popular demands, seem, on the 
basis of similarity, to have been the forerunners of academies. They 
were independent; their existence was determined by their popu- 
larity ; they sought pupils of all grades ; and they undertook to give 
instruction in any subject for which there was a demand. Certain 
economic conditions, such as the increase in wealth, population and 
general prosperity of the country, and the consequent rise of a middle 
class in society, were fundamental in calling forth a new kind of 
school. 

The following resume contains an incomplete list of secondary 
schools that prevailed during the colonial period, with a few data 
concerning them. A chronological order is followed as indicated by 
the dates on the left of the page. 
1652 A Latin grammar school was established in New Amsterdam. 

It was continued not longer than two years. ^^ 
1659 -^ Latin school was reopened in New Amsterdam with A. C. 

Curtius as master. He left the school in 1661.^^ 
1662 The last-named school was continued by the Rev. Mr Luyck, 
who returned to Holland in 1665, when the school proba- 
bly stopped.^" 
1668 A private Latin school was conducted in New York City by 

Mr David Jamison.^^ 
1677 A Latin school was opened in New York City.^^ 
1688 The Latin school of Fathers Harvey and Harrison in New 
York City was closed in 1688.^^ 



'^ Kilpatrick, op. cit., p. 95-99. 
™ Ibid., p. 104. 

^'Ibid., p. 107. But the statement is made in Brown, op. cit., p. 52, that 
this school was closed about 1672. 
^ Brown, op. cit., p. 53. 
" Boone, op. cit., p. 53. 
"Brown, op. cit, p. 53. 



CONDITIONS IN NEW YORK STATE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION IJ 

1700 New York seems to have been without a grammar school.^* 
1702 Legal and financial provisions were made for a grammar 

schoolmaster.^^ 
1704 The school provided for in 1702 was opened.^^ 
1709 The last-named school ended about 1709.^^ 
1716 The Rev. Robert Jenny kept a private grammar school in 

New York City, which probably ended in 1722.^^ 
1720 Foster at New Rochelle had " some Latin scholars besides 

his elementary pupils." ^® 

1 73 1 Alexander Malcom kept a private grammar school in New 

York City.^" 

1732 A grammar school was established by the Legislature. This 

school was the supposed germ of King's College.'*^ 
1738 The last-named school was ended in 1738.*^ 

1 741 From one to two private grammar schools were operated in 

New York City from 1741 to 1762.*^ 

1742 The Rev. Samuel Seabury kept a grammar school in Hemp- 

stead, which was closed in 1764.** 
1747 From 1747 to 1749, T. B. Chandler, a Harvard student, kept 
a Latin school in Rye.^^ 

1763 The grammar school of King's College was opened.*^ 

1764 From 1764 to 1767, Timothy Wetmore conducted a Latin 

school at Rye.*'^ 

1 77 1 The Rev. William Andrews kept a Latin school at Schenec- 
tady, which was continued until 1777 by the Rev. John 
Doty.^» 

1774 Kingston Academy, Ulster county, was begun.*^ 



'' Ibid., p. 93- 

'^Ibid., loc. cit. ; Kemp, op. cit., p. 70. 
^'Kemp, op. cit., p. 68, 71. 
^ Ibid., p. 73. 
^*Ibid., p. 74- 
'Mbid., p. 161. 
*' Ibid., p. 72- 
" Brown, op. cit., p. 94. 
*^ Kemp, op. cit., p. 72,. 
*'Ibid., p. 75- 
*"Ibid., p. 182. 
*'Ibid., p. 144- 
^^ Brown, op. cit., p. 95. 
*' Kemp, op. cit., p. 144. 
■^Ibid., p. 202, 203. 

** University of the State of New York, Convocation Proceedings, 1884, 
P- 63. 



l8 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

1776 The Rev. Samuel Seabury set up a grammar school at New 

Rochelle, which was closed about 1777.^° 
1776 The Rev. J. G. Gebhard opened a classical school at Claverack, 

which was reorganized 3 years later as Washington Sem- 

inary.^^ 

1779 The Rev. Leonard Cutting continued the school established 

by Seabury at Hempstead in 1742, from 1766 to 1779.^^ 

1780 Washington Academy, Salem, was begun by the Rev. John 

Watson in a log house as a classical school.^^ 
1784 A classical school was opened by Noah Webster at Goshen, 

which became Farmer's Hall in 1784.^* 
1787 With the incorporation this year by the Regents, of Erasmus 

Hall at Flatbush and Clinton Academy at West Hampton, 

began a new period of secondary education in the State, 

the period of academies. 

Summary 

A number of conspicuous changes mark the development of the 
educational situation in New York during the colonial period. The 
influences of the churches in directing and governing schools con- 
tinually grew weaker. Teachers were no longer required to secure 
their licenses from church officials, nor did the church continue to 
control curriculums. The schools gradually became secularized.^^ 
The Dutch language was finally reduced to a minimum, and English 
came to be used in nearly all the schools. Curriculums were broad- 
ened, and the religious element was given less time and attention. 
The Latin grammar schools were nearly extinct by the close of the 
Revolution, and academies were springing up. The democratic 
spirit of the age was being felt in educational affairs. 



Kemp, op. cit., p. 161. 

University of the State of New York, op. cit., p. 64. 
' Kemp, op. cit., p. 182, 183. 
' University of the State of New York, op. cit., p. 64. 

Ibid., loc. cit. 

Kilpatrick, op. cit., p. 215. 



LEGAL STATUS OF THE ACADEMIES I9 



CHAPTER II 
Legal Status of the Academies of the State of New York 

The academies of the State of New York received legal recogni- 
tion at the first session of the State Legislature in 1784, when pro- 
visions were made for their establishment as quasi-public institutions. 
Governor George Clinton in his message on January 21st of that 
year had called the attention of the Legislature to the need of educa- 
tion in these words : 

Neglect of the Education of Youth, is among the Evils consequent on 
War. Perhaps there is scarce any Thing more worthy your Attention, than 
the Revival and Encouragement of Seminaries of Learning; and nothing by 
which we can more satisfactorily express our Gratitude to the supreme 
Being, for his past Favours ; since Piety and Virtue are generally the Off- 
spring of an enlightened Understanding.* 

The Legislature exercised its control over academies in two ways : 
directly, by means of general and special enactments, and indirectly 
through the Regents of the University of the State of New York. 
On account of its peculiar organization and vital connection with 
the academies, a knowledge of the latter institution is required for 
an intelligent conception of these secondary schools. 

Establishment of the Regents of the Umversity of the State of 

New York 

A definite, comprehensive plan for the establishment and opera- 
tion of colleges and academies was provided by the two separate 
acts of 1784 and 1787. These provisions, with some minor modifica- 
tions noted below, remained in force throughout the nineteenth 
century, and determined the type of secondary school, the academy, 
that was predominant in the State until about 1875. 

The Act of 1784 
The law passed May i, 1784, entitled "An Act for granting cer- 
tain Privileges to the College heretofore called King's College, for 
altering the Name and Charter thereof, and erecting an University 
within this State," was the culmination of a number of events ^ of 

^ Senate Jour., 1784, p. 6. 

* Some of these were : The Governor's message calling attention to the 
need of education, January 21, 1784; reports of various committees in the 
Senate and Assembly, and resolutions of these two bodies favoring the estab- 
lishment of "seminaries of learning," January 23-28; the Senate gave Mr 
Duane leave to bring in a bill, " for establishing a University within this 
State, February 19; petition of the Governors of King's College asking for 
a revision of their charter, March 24; revisions, amendments, and readings 



20 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

educational significance. This act marks the beginning of legislative 
provisions for schools in the State of New York. The chief features 
of the law so far as academies are concerned were: (i) The crea- 
tion of a corporation, called the Regents of the University of the 
State of New York/ whose principal function was to establish and 
control schools and colleges. (2) Eight ex-officio members (Re- 
gents) of the corporation and twenty-four designated by name 
were provided for. In addition to these the churches were given 
permission to elect a Regent (or perhaps each church was allowed 
to appoint one Regent, the law not being clear), and any school or 
college whose endowment produced an annual income of the value 
of a thousand bushels of wheat was allowed to elect one Regent. 
(3) "Provided, That nothing in this Act contained, shall be con- 
strued to deprive any Person or Persons, of the Right to erect such 
Schools or Colleges as to him or them may seem proper, independent 
of the said University." * 

An amendment to this law, passed November 26, 1784, increased 
the number of Regents, reduced the quorum, provided for an annual 
meeting, made it clear that each religious denomination might elect 
a Regent, and made some other minor changes,^ which did not affect 
the interests of secondary schools. 

It is evident that the university thus created was not an institution 
for instructing students directly, but an administrative body for 
supervising the schools and colleges of the State. In this respect 
it was like our modern state departments of education. But it was 
given a more direct control over the management of schools than 
is exercised by state officials in our country. The Regents were 
given the power to perform the functions usually delegated to trus- 
tees, curators, or similar bodies, such as administering the finances 
and electing members of the faculty. No school under the authority 
of the University needed a charter, because the latter was a corpora- 
tion that included all schools of the State recognized by the law. 

During the three years that the Regents were organized under 
this act they received no academies into the University. That this 
neglect was not due to a failure of the Regents to recognize the 
supervision of these schools as a part of their duty, is shown by the 



of the bill in the Legislature, March 25 to April 30; the Council of Revision 
reported favorably and the bill became a law, May i, 1784. (Proceedings of 
the University Convocation, 1875, P- 197-203.) 

•This title was later changed to "University of the State of New York," 
and is often referred to under the name of Regents, or University. 

* Proceedings of the University Convocation, 1875, P- 208. 

'Ibid., p. 221. 



LEGAL STATUS OF THE ACADEMIES 21 

minutes of that body, February 28, 1786 when a committee was 
appointed to consider " Ways and Means of promoting literature 
throughout the State." ^ Under the date of February 8, 1787, is this 
entry : "A Petition of Samuel Buell, Nathaniel Gardiner, and David 
Mulford, in behalf of themselves and others, Founders of an Acad- 
emy at East Hampton, in Suffolk county, was read, and committed 
to Mr L'Hommedieu, Mr Tredwell, Mr Stoutenburgh, and Mr Van- 
derbilt." ^ However, it was not until the University was reorganized 
by the act of 1787 that it became effective in developing the academies. 

The Act of 1787 

Since the law of 1787, reorganizing the University, served as a 
basis upon which the academies were built, its principal features, 
and especially those pertaining to academies, will be sketched here. 

One of the important changes brought about by the revised act 
was the incorporation of colleges and academies under boards of 
trustees. According to the first plan, the Regents were to act as 
trustees of all the institutions subject to their authority. The law 
of 1787 provided that a board of trustees should be selected for each 
college or academy incorporated, and forbade any such trustee to be 
at the same time a Regent. The Regents were thus relieved of the 
task of managing directly all the business affairs of the various 
incorporated schools. The complete separation of the personnel of 
Regents and trustees prevented any school from attempting to secure 
special favors through its trustees on the board of Regents. There 
was a similar clause governing the relation of faculties and trustees. 
No one was allowed to be at the same time a teacher and a trustee 
of the same institution. The Regents were, by this part of the law, 
made an imperial rather than a federative body. It has ever since 
been a fundamental principle of educational institutions in our coun- 
try that the teaching staff shall have no voice in the board of trustees. 
Sectarian and denominational influence were guarded against by 
forbidding any incorporated school to require a religious test or 
oath of its teachers. 

This law of 1787 was the Magna Charta of academies. It speci- 
fied in detail the conditions under which academies might be incor- 
porated; also the powers and duties of their trustees. The chief 
requirements of an academy applying for incorporation were: 
( I ) The petition presented to the Regents should be signed by those 



•Minutes of the Regents of the University, February 28, 1786. 
' Ibid., February 8, 1787. 



22 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

who had contributed more than a half of the funds for the support 
of the school; (2) the trustees, not more than twenty-four or not 
fewer than twelve, were to be named; (3) the name of the intended 
corporation should be specified ; (4) its annual revenue should not 
exceed 4000 bushels of wheat. When the Regents were satisfied that 
all legal requirements had been met, they could incorporate the 
academy " if they conceived such Academy calculated for the Pro- 
motion of Literature." 

The duties and powers of the trustees of an incorporated academy 
are fully described. Some of the most important were: (i) The 
trustees shall constitute a corporate body ; (2) they shall be in charge 
of the property and revenues of the institution; (3) they shall have 
power to appoint and discharge teachers, officers and servants ; to 
fix the tuition rate of pupils ; to fill vacancies in their own body. All 
subsequent legislation concerning trustees of incorporated academies 
was in harmony with these principles. 

Article 17 of this act declared that a student from an academy 
should, upon examination, be entitled to admission to any college 
under the visitation of the Regents. Article 19 stated that when 
" the State of Literature in any Academy is so far advanced, and 
the funds will permit thereof " the academy might be reorganized 
into a college. 

The functions of visitation, examination and reports, which 
developed so extensively during the nineteenth century and served 
to systematize the work of the academies, were assigned to the 
Regents in the following articles : 

3 And it is further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid. That it shall and 
may be lawful to and for the said Regents, and they are hereby authorised 
and required to visit and inspect all the Colleges, Academies and Schools, 
which are or may be established in this State; examine into the State and 
System of Education and Discipline therein, and make a yearly Report 
thereof to the Legislature; . . . and to make such Bye-Laws and Ordi- 
nances, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the State, as they 
may judge most expedient for the Accomplishment of the Trust hereby 
reposed in them.' 

18 . . . That to entitle the Scholars of any such Academy to the Privi- 
leges aforesaid, the Trustees thereof shall lay before the Regents of the said 
University, from Time to Time, the Plan or System proposed to be adopted, 
for the Education of the Students in each of the said Academies respectively, 
in order that the same may be revised and examined by the said Regents, 
and by them be altered or amended, or approved and confirmed, as they 
shall judge proper.* 



' Session Acts, chap. 82, art. 3, passed April 13, 1787. 
•Ibid., art. 18. 



LEGAL STATUS OF THE ACADEMIES 23 

Subsequent Acts Relating to the University 

As the educational interests of the State grew more extensive and 
complex during the following century, the Legislature passed laws 
at various times to define or increase the powers of the Regents. 
Libraries, museums and extension work were brought under their 
control. But their relation to the secondary schools remained essen- 
tially the same as determined by the act of 1787. It is a significant 
fact that the law of 1892 ^^ contains practically no feature affecting 
secondary education in academies, that was not included in the laws 
of 1784-87. The legal status of academies under the Regents has 
remained unchanged. The corporate existence of the Regents was 
made independent of the Legislature by the constitution adopted in 
1894." 

Ordinances of Regents 

The Regents, acting upon the authority " to make such Bye-Laws 
and Ordinances, not inconsistent with the Constitution and Laws of 
the State, as they may judge most expedient for the Accomplish- 
ment of the Trust hereby reposed in them," ^^ which was delegated 
to them by the act of incorporation, adopted such ordinances from 
time to time as the needs of the schools under their visitation required 
for the guidance of the officials of academies. These ordinances 
were published and distributed from 1834 to 1854 under the title of 
Regents' Instructions, and since that time under the titles of Uni- 
versity Manual and official bulletins. The ordinances may be grouped 
for convenience into three classes: (i) Those specifying the con- 
ditions that an academy should meet before applying to the Regents 
for incorporation; (2) ordinances governing the distribution of state 
aid; (3) those describing how records should be kept, and what 
forms should be observed in making reports to the Regents. 

The clause, " if they conceive such an Academy calculated for the 
promotion of Literature," ^^ gave the Regents discretionary power 
in incorporating academies. In 1801 they resolved, " That in future 



" "An act to revise and consolidate the laws relating to the University of 
the State of New York." Session Acts, 1892, chap. 378. 

" " The corporation created in the year 1784, under the name of the regents 
of the university of the state of New York, is hereby continued under the 
name of the university of the state of New York. It shall be governed and 
its corporate powers, which may be increased, modified or diminished by the 
legislature, shall be exercised, by not less than nine regents." Constitution, 
1894, art. 9, par. 2. 
" " Session Acts, 1787, chap. 82, art. 3. 

" Session Acts, 1787, chap. 82, art. 12. 



^4 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

no academy ought to be incorporated, unless it shall be made to 
appear, by satisfactory evidence, to this Board, that a proper build- 
ing for that purpose hath been erected, and finished and paid for; 
and that funds have been obtained and well secured, providing an 
annual nett income of at least $ioo, (increased in 1815 to $250) ; 
and further that there be a condition in the charter of incorpora- 
tion, that the principal or estate producing said income, shall never 
be diminished or appropriated, and that the said income shall be 
applied only to the maintenance or salaries of the professors or 
tutors of the academy." ^* 

This resolution, which was in effect an ordinance, remained in 
force until the law of 1838, which provided that an academy should 
have a plant worth not less than $2500 before it be allowed to 
receive a share of the income from the United States deposit fund.^^ 
The Regents passed an ordinance the same year in agreement with 
this law, and specified further conditions of incorporation.^*^ 

The requirements for incorporation were revised at different 
times, and gradually raised. In i'888 they included: ( i) Property 
valued at $5000 or more "above all incumbrances"; (2) the debts 
must not exceed one-third of the value of the property; (3) build- 
ings worth not less than $2000; (4) a library valued at $500 or 
more; (5) an income sufficient for the support of the academy; 
(6) twenty-five scholars qualified to pursue secondary subjects." 

In 1792 the Regents were given 1500 pounds by the Legislature 
to be apportioned as they saw fit among the academies.^^ This was 
the first general appropriation made for that purpose, and made it 
necessary for the Regents to formulate some rules for its distribu- 
tion. They at once adopted a policy containing the general prin- 
ciples followed in all future apportionments. They held that 
pecuniary aid should be given only to supplement teachers' salaries 
paid by trustees, for the purchase of library books and laboratory 
apparatus, and for scholarships to needy students.^^ Previous to 
1817 the Regents apportioned state aid to academies on the basis of 
total attendance. That year they adopted a rule to apportion the 
funds on the basis of pupils pursuing studies " which are usually 
deemed necessary as preparatory to the admission of students to 



" Regents Instructions, 1834, p. 26. 
'' Session Acts, 1838, April 17th. 
'" Reaents Instructions, 1845, p. 28. 
" Regents Manual, 1888, p. 49. 
"Session Acts, 1792, chap. 69. 
'"Senate Jour., i6th Si;ssion, p. 91. 



LEGAL STATUS OF THE ACADEMIES 2$ 

well-regulated colleges." ^° The next year they adopted the rule that 
" four-fifths of the sum annually distributed among the Academies 
of the State, be distributed in proportion to the number of students 
studying in the classics," ^^ which was the same class of students 
mentioned the previous year, because college preparatory subjects 
and the classics were then practically identical. After 1864, the 
apportionment was determined by the number of pupils who had 
passed the " preliminary examination " of the Regents.^^ This was 
the rule until 1882, when " a part of the income of the Literature 
fund not to exceed one-fourth " was distributed in proportion to the 
number of pupils who had passed the advanced examination of the 
Regents.-^ The method of payment by results, adopted in 1882, 
was abandoned at the close of the century. The ordinance making 
this change, passed December 12, 1900, reads: "Academic students 
counted for grants shall include only those who have passed all pre- 
liminary or ' preacademic ' subjects and are enrolled in or are enjoy- 
ing the facilities of a secondary school in the University." ^* 

So long as there were only a few academies, and the Regents by 
committees could visit each one every year, there was no need for 
annual reports by trustees. Until 1804 only brief and informal 
reports had been made. That year the Regents required the reports 
to be written on printed forms. Four years later this system was 
discontinued, and until 181 8 but little more than the number of 
pupils attending was reported. That year the Regents instructed 
the trustees .and principals to distinguish between elementary pupils 
and those pursuing classical studies, and to report the number of 
pupils in each group. 

An ordinance of the Regents passed March 18, 1828 instructed 
academies to report on the following particulars : ^^ " Value of 
academy lot and building ; value of its other real estate ; value of its 
library and philosophical apparatus ; value of its other personal 
estate ; its tuition money received or accrued, for the year ending on 
the date of the report ; interest or income of its permanent funds, 
received or accrued during said year ; amount of its debts remain- 
ing unpaid ; amount of money received by it from the Regents of 



'"Minutes of Regents, April 7, 1817. (Hough). 
"Ibid., March 24, 1818. (Hough). 
" Regents Ordinance, passed July 27, 1864. 

''Regents Instructions, 1882, p. 133, 134. This examination was equivalent 
to a college entrance examination. 
^" Regents Rcp't, 1900, Administrative Dep't, p. r48, r49. 
"' Regents Instructions, 1834, p. 24. 



26 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

the University since its last annual report, and how the same has 
been expended ; number and names of its teachers, and the annual 
salary or compensation allowed to each ; whole number of students, 
including classical and all others, belonging to the academy on the 
date of its report ; number of students belonging to the academy on 
the date of its report, or who belonged to it during part of the year 
ending on the date of its report, and who are claimed by the trustees 
to have pursued for four months of said year, or upwards, classical 
studies, or the higher branches of English education, or both, accord- 
ing to the true intent and meaning of the foregoing ordinance " ; the 
age, name and studies of each of the last mentioned students ; the time 
devoted to each study and the textbook used ; a statement that all 
classical students had passed an elementary examination, and that 
composition and declamation were taught ; meteorological reports. 
Every report was required to be " verified by the oath of the prin- 
cipal, or one of the trustees of the academy." 

The Regents instructions of 1834, 1845 and 1849 contain the same 
ordinance, except a few minor changes. An ordinance passed Octo- 
ber 20, 1853,-'^ revised and codified all previous instructions con- 
cerning annual reports of academies. This new ordinance enumer- 
ated twenty-five items, many of which were included in the ordinance 
of 1828, on which academies were required to report. The instruc- 
tions for 1864^^ and 1870'^ contain the twenty-five items with but 
little change, but in increasing detail. In 1882 ^^ academies were 
instructed to report on nineteen subjects including the affidavit, but 
each of these subjects included a number of topics, so the reports 
were more complete and detailed than in previous years. At the 
close of the century, an academy report was composed of no less 
than one hundred four entries,^" which were grouped into seven 
divisions. 

Legislation Directly Affecting Academies 

The Legislature not only governed academies indirectly through 
the Regents, but reserved the right to pass any special or general 
act directly affecting these schools. Such laws were often wholly 
independent of any intermediation on the part of the Regents. 



'" Ibid., i8^3, p. 66ff. 

" Ibid., 1864, p. 82ff. 

=' Ibid., 1870, p. I04ff. 

'•Ibid., 1882, p. 161 ff. 

'"Regents Rep't, 1900, High School Department, v. 2, table i. 



LEGAL STATUS OF THE ACADEMIES 2/ 

However, there was no conflict between laws of the State and the 
ordinances of the Regents. The harmonious operation of this system 
of dual control is illustrated in the granting of charters of corpora- 
tion. Before the year 1817, the Regents had incorporated forty 
academies. The Legislature that year incorporated one academy"^ 
and one special institution,^^ which were probably the first to be 
incorporated by special acts. By 1854 the Legislature had incorpo- 
rated 177 institutions classed as academies, while the total number 
of the same kind of schools incorporated by the Regents up to that 
time was 137.^' By 1874 the Legislature had incorporated 201, and 
the Regents 233.'* In some of these acts incorporating academies, 
the Legislature specified that the school was not to be subject to the 
visitation of the Regents. 

These acts of incorporation usually contained a clause, stating 
that the academy should be received under visitation by the Regents 
when it had met the conditions required of other schools incorpo- 
rated by them. In a few cases of a special kind, the act allowed the 
Regents no choice in the matter, but required them to receive the 
school into their system.^^ Although the Regents were not given 
the exclusive power to incorporate academies, they did, except in 
a few instances, control the admission of such schools into the Uni- 
versity. It evidently was the intention of the Legislature to supple- 
ment, not to parallel or oppose the work of the Regents. 

By numerous special and general grants of land and money to 
academies, the Legislature established the important principle that 
pubHc funds might be used for the support of secondary education, 
a principle not expressed in the fundamental law of 1787. The 
policy of financial support began with the reservation of lands for 
churches and schools in 1782. In an act relating to public lands the 
following occurs : " Provided always that in every such township 
there shall be laid out one lott containing four hundred acres for the 
support of the gospel, and two other lotts containing each two hun- 
dred acres for the use of schools ; and if any number of acres less 
than the least right shall remain they shall in like manner be appro- 



** Clinton Grammar School; Session Acts, 1817, chap. iig. 

"New York Institute for the Deaf and Dumb; Session Acts, 1817, chap. 
264. 

^ Regents Instructions, 1853, p. I39ff. 

'* Ibid., p. 143, 150. 

"New York Institution for Deaf and Dumb (Session Acts, 1830, chap. 
170) and Genesee and Wesleyan Seminary (Session Acts, 1836, chap. 44) are 
types of this kind. 



28 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

priated to the use of schools." ^^ This was supplemented by further 
acts, 1786," 1790,^^ 1801,^^ and m 1813 *** which resulted in the 
establishment of a permanent fund, the literature fund, the proceeds 
of which have since been used for the benefit of secondary schools. 
In 1838 a part of the income from the United States deposit fund 
was granted to the support of academies.'*^ 

Special grants of lands and donations were also common during 
the early part of the academy period. The Legislature in 1796 
granted lot 36 in the village of Johnstown to the Johnstown Acad- 
emy.^^ A large number of appropriations to individual academies 
followed during the next fifty years.*^ 

The Legislature in establishing permanent funds or in making 
general appropriations, specified, in some cases, under what condi- 
tions academies were to be allowed to share in the revenue. The 
funds appropriated in 1792,^* 1801,^^ 1813,*° 1814,*^ and 1816*^ were 
distributed at the direction of the Regents. The Legislature in 1827 
specified how the annual appropriation to academies should be appor- 
tioned.*^ This act merely defined terms and indorsed practices that 
the Regents had been following for a decade except that pupils 
studying higher English branches as well as classical students were 
counted in apportioning state aid. In 1858, an act ■*' relating to the 
United States deposit fund fixed the conditions upon which acad- 
emies would be granted a part of the proceeds. 

Legislation relating to academies was less frequent during the 
second half of the century. The union free school law of 1853," 



IS 



'"'"An acl for raising troops to complete the line of this State in the 
service of the United States, and the two regiments to be raised on bounties 
of unappropriated lands and for the further defence of the frontiers of thi 
State." Session Acts, 1782, chap. 22, art. 7. 

^^ Session Acts, 1786, chap. 67. 

^Ibid., 1790, chap. 38. 

""Ibid., 1801, chap. 126. 

^Mbid., 1813, chap. 187. 

*^ Ibid., 1838. chap. 237, § 8. 

*^ Session Acts, 1796, chap. 50. 

** Pratt: Annals of Public Education, Convocation Proceedings, 1872, p 
207fif. 

■" Session Acts, 1792, chap. 69. 

'^ Session Acts, 1814, chap. 83. 

** Session Acts, 1816, chap. 90. 

" Session Acts, 1827, chap. 228. 

■* Session Acts, 1838, chap. 237. 

'" Session Acts, 1853, chap. 433. 



LEGAL STATUS OF THE ACADEMIES 29 

the stock corporation laws of 185 1 ^"-1857,^^ and the mill tax law of 
1872 ^^ will serve as illustrations. 

The union free school law was primarily a measure to provide for 
local option in the matter of tax-supported common schools. But 
the boards of education of union schools were permitted to organize 
departments for secondary education and to adopt academies exist- 
ing in their districts. This relation between the union schools and 
academies is made clear by the following section of the law : " When- 
ever an union school shall be established under the provisions of 
this act, and there shall exist within its district an academy, the 
trustees thereof may, by an unanimous vote, to be attested by their 
signatures and filed in the office of the clerk of the county, declare 
their offices vacant ; and thereafter the trustees of such union school, 
shall become the trustees of the said academy, and be charged with 
all the duties of the former trustees, and the said academy shall be 
regarded as the academical department of such union school." ^^ 
This law marks an important step in the shifting of secondary edu- 
cation from academies to modern high schools. However, the tran- 
sition was at first slow. During the second decade after the law was 
passed, academies more frequently were merged in union schools, 
and by 1874 there were 64 academies that had been changed into 
academic departments of union schools.^^ 

The law of 1851 permitted stock companies that were operating 
academies to declare dividends. Very little was paid in dividends 
during the operation of the law. The act of 1857 put an end to 
the payment of dividends by any company organized and incorpo- 
rated for the purpose of instruction. 

An act passed in 1872 provided a tax upon all taxable property for 
the support of secondary schools. So much opposition to this meas- 
ure arose that it was repealed two years later. 

Constitutional Provisions 
The constitution adopted in 1777, amended in 1801, and the con- 
stitution of 1821 contain no reference to secondary schools. The 
constitution adopted in 1846 provides that " the revenues of the said 
literature-fund shall be applied to the support of academies." ^* The 
constitution of 1894 repeats the same clause, and contains the fol- 
lowing new paragraph : 



*' Session Acts, 1853, chap. 433. 

°"Ibid., 185 1, chap. 544- 

" Ibid., 1857, chap. 527. 

" Ibid., 1872, chap. 736. 

" C£. table 5. 

** Constitution, 1846, art. 9, sec. 



30 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

Neither the state nor any subdivision thereof, shall use its property or 
credit or any public money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly 
or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination or inspection, 
for any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control 
or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational 
tenet or doctrine is taught.^' 

Summary 

The laws of the State at no time required communities to support 
academies. All such institutions were established by local initiative. 
The legislation concerning them had for its purpose the protection 
of endowments, financial support, and the maintenance of high 
standards of scholarship in them. 

The academies were governed by the Legislature acting under the 
constitution of the State. The Legislature delegated to the Regents 
the direct management of the incorporated academies, except in 
some few instances. The board of trustees of each academy was 
permitted to adopt rules for its school. The Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, later called Commissioner of Education, exer- 
cised a limited legislative power over academies in connection with 
academic classes for the instruction of common school teachers. 



Constitution, 1894, art. 9, par. 4. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 3I 

CHAPTER m 
Relation of Academies to Other Schools 

The policy of the State of New York, leaving the establishment 
of schools largely to local and private initiative, and resorting to 
numerous special acts to aid and control such institutions, produced 
many kinds and an indefinite variety of schools. It is the purpose 
of this chapter to explain the reciprocal influence of the more 
important of those schools, including the Latin grammar schools 
which preceded them, and the incorporated academies. The types 
of schools discussed in this connection are: (i) Latin grammar 
schools, (2) private, unincorporated, and select schools, (3) moni- 
torial high schools, (4) " manual labor seminaries," (5) high schools 
in the modern sense, or " academical departments of union schools," ^ 
and (6) colleges. 

The incorporated academies of the nineteenth century formed a 
distinct type ; hut they had characteristics in common with all other 
schools of the State, both of lower and higher grade. During the 
second half of the century they were so fused with public high 
schools that it is difficult during that period to differentiate in 
every instance, between the two. Academies may be defined in terms 
of such factors as legal status, source of support, local board of 
control, curriculum, and rank; the latter measured by the ability to 
meet Regents' requirements. 

The first of these factors, legal status, has already been explained 
and was determined chiefly in the act of incorporation. The typical 
academy derived its support largely from tuition fees, and was aided 
by state appropriations and voluntary donations, or endowments ; 
but no statement can be made in regard to support, or concerning 
the other factors of control, legal status, curriculum, and rank, that 
will apply strictly to all academies. There were only occasional 
instances of tax support.^ The typical academy was administered 
by a board of trustees, named in the charter and made self-perpetu- 
ating, or elected by stockholders, appointed by civil officials, or 
chosen in some similar manner ; but not elected by popular vote. 
Its curriculum included subjects of a more advanced grade than 
those taught in elementary schools, but did not exclude elementary 



^ For the purposes of this discussion, the term " academical department of 
union school," which was used in official reports during the last half of the 
nineteenth century, will be considered synonymous with the term " high 
school." 

* Session Acts, 1814, chap. 79; 1835, chap. 169; 1872, chap. 736. 



^2 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

subjects. Nearly all subjects offered in colleges were taught in 
academies. A building and grounds were owned by the corpora- 
tion in charge of the school, which tended to make it permanent. 

The relation of academies to the Latin grammar schools which 
preceded them has been mentioned above. The former were under 
state supervision and supported in part by the State. These pro- 
visions were not generally true of the latter. Both depended upon 
local or private initiative for their establishment. A comparison 
of the curriculums of the grammar school maintained by the colonial 
Legislature from 1732 to 1739, and Erasmus Hall (academy) in 
1787, will show that the aims and course of instruction in the latter 
were broader than those of the former. 

Cuiriculiun of Latin grammar school Curriculum of Erasmus Hall (acad- 
of 1732-39^ emy), 1787' 

Latin Latin English 

Greek Cireek language 

Mathematics Arithmetic Reading 

Bookkeeping( ?) Bookkeeping Writing 

Geography Elocution 

^_ "■ ■-■■■•■'■ ^^ LI' History (General) French 

Private, Select and Unincorporated Schools 

The law of 1787, establishing the policy of the State in regard to 
secondary and higher education, provided that nothing in the act 
should be so construed as to " deprive any person or persons of the 
right to erect such schools or colleges as to him or them may seem 
proper, independent of the University." Probably at all times during 
the nineteenth century, and certainly after 1840, there was a large 
number of such institutions, which received no legal recognition, 
were not required to meet the standards set by state officials, and 
were regulated only by the law of supply and demand. Unincorpo- 
rated academies, select schools,^' and private schools were terms 
applied to schools of this class, but they were never differentiated 
nor their curriculums determined. However, it is certain that the 
higher grade of them ranked between regular academies and public 
common schools.^ 



'Colonial Documents Relating to the History of New York, v. 4, p. 118; 
New York Historical Society, Collections, ser. I, v. 5, p. 2. 

■* Cf. chapter V, on Curriculum, p. loi. 

° The Revised Statutes of 1829 provided for the incoi-poration of select 
schools, but with practically no results. The two or three that were incor- 
porated scon were dissolved. Session Acts, 1829, chap. 267. 

" Evidence that school officials considered them of this grade is found in 
the State Superintendent's reports as follows: 1843, p. 146, 147, 213, 234, 274; 
1844, p. 241, 331 ; 1848, p. 6. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 33 

Judging by their numbers and the large attendance in them, it 
seems that they would have been rivals of the incorporated acad- 
emies, especially for pupils in elementary subjects. But they came 
into conflict most directly with common schools. By those most 
interested in developing the public elementary schools, select and 
private schools were looKed upon as pernicious and injurious to 
educational interests. Two charges were brought against them : 
(i) By attracting pupils who would have otherwise attended common 
schools and paid rate bills, they deprived those schools of support; 
(2) they fostered an aristocratic spirit, by appealing to the wealthier 
class of people, and reduced the common schools to the appearance 
of charity institutions. '^ 

The numerical relation of private, unincorporated and select 
schools to academies, from 1844 to the close of the century, is indi- 
cated by table i. The statistics on these schools, recorded in the 
State Superintendent's annual reports, were prepared from data 
furnished by county superintendents, and are not accurate.* 

The figures of talile i indicate : ( i ) That the number of private 
schools remained about the same after 1855 (except for the incon- 
sistent number given for 1900) ; (2) that the number of pupils 
attending those schools continued to increase rapidly until 1895, 
when it was about five times what it was in 1844; (3) both the 
number of private schools and the attendance in them far exceeded 
the same numbers for academies at all times. 



^ State Superintendent of Schools, Annual Rep'ts, 1843, p. 146, 147, 274, 
292; 1844, P- 393, 481, S19; 1848, p. 8. 

* The State Superintendent in 1848, said that but little confidence could be 
placed in the reports on private schools, and gives the following figures to 
show the inconsistencies in the data furnished him : 

Number of Number of 

private pupils attending 

" Name of county schools private schools 

Allegany 3 i 172 

Cattaraugus 12 18 

Cortland 8 88 

Herkimer 22 24 

Montgomery o 2 

Schoharie 8 38 

Seneca 25 21 

Warren 7 78 

Yates 21 68 

None are reported from New York or Albany while there must be a large 
number in each." The figures show that in some counties the number of 
pupils in each school was less than one on the average, and two pupils were 
reported from Montgomery county where there were no such schools. State 
Superintendent of Schools, Annual Rep't, 1848, p. 8. 

2 



34 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Table i 



Private, Select, and Unincorpor- 
ated Schools 



Number Number of 

of pupils 

Year schools attending 

1844 9S4 34 lOS 

1846 I 981 56058 

1850 2 277 45 840 

I8SS I SOS 43 096 

i860 I 275 29 603 

i86s I 481 54 345 

1870 I S14 127 061 

1875 1437 134644 

1880 I 176 108 567 

i88s I 116 124 8x6 

1890 I 988 160 996 

189s I 118 165 860 

1900 238 II 982 



References to 
Superintendents' 
reports 
1844, table A 
1846, table A 
1852, p. 5 
1857, p. 
1861, p. 
1866, p. 
1871, p 
1876, p 
1881, p 
1886, p 
1891, p 
1896, p. 
1901, p. 



92 



Academies 



Year 
1844 
1846 
1850 
i8ss 
i860 
1865-6 
1870-1 
1875-6 
1 880-1 
1885-6 
1890 
1895 
1900 



Number 

of 

academies 

146 

155 

163 

15s 

170 

190 

132 

113 

79 

74 

99 

131 

9 140 



Number of 

pupils 
attending 
22 782 
22 077 
27 6S3 
36 585 
29 061 
32 008 
21 CIS 
15 124 

10 371 

11 868 
15 271 
II 220 

10 12 722 



Note: The figures "for private, select and unincorporated schools" 
include unincorporated academies, which were not reported separately, except 
in the census of the State of New York for 1865, from which the following 
figures were obtained." 

Number of non-incorporated boarding academies for 1864 no 

Average attendance in them the same year, males 3 693 

females 4 066 7 759 

Number owned by stock companies 10 

" u u churches and religious bodies 

" a « individuals 



IS 
85 



The years of establishment for some of them were as follows: 



1821. 
1832. 
1834. 
1835. 
1836. 
1837. 



.one 
.one 
.one 
.one 
.one 
.one 



1838. 
1839. 
1840. 
1845. 
1849. 
1850. 



.two 
.one 
.one 
.one 
.two 
.five 



1851 three 

1852 four 

1853 three 

1854 one 

1855 seven 

1856 three 



I8s8.. 
1859.. 
i860. . 
1861.. 
1862. . 
1863 nine 



.four 

.four 

.four 

.six 

.two 



The Development of a Free Secondary School 
The growth of democratic sentiment in the first part of the nine- 
teenth century contained the idea of equal opportunities for all. 
Philanthropic schemes for elevating the poorer classes were char- 
acteristic of the times. ^-^ Many realized that the mass of children 
could not command the means of attending academies, and had no 
opportunity to learn any more than the three R's which were taught 
in the elementary schools. ^^ 

A report of the literature committee of the Assembly in 1831 said: "Our 
beloved country ought not to be behind in the pleasing employment of giving 
facilities to the poor and industrious young men of our State, thereby 
enabling them to obtain situations in life which they otherwise could not 
do." Assembly Document, 1831, no. 262. 

'^ Three of these were " special schools." 
'"Including 2510 pupils in three "special schools." 
" Census for the State of New York for 1865, p. cxxv. 
" Assembly Document, 1831, no. 262. Messages from the Governors, vol. 
5, p. 381. 
^" Messages from the Governors, v. a, p. 350. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 35 

John B. Yates, petitioning the Legislature for a loan for a secondary 
school, said : " The diffusion of instruction in all its branches, among every 
class of our citizens, is evidently too intimately connected with the duration 
of our government, the religious and political safety of our institutions " to 
need any expression of approval. Senate Document, 1830, no. 39, p. 3. 

With a view to making the poor more prosperous and promoting 
the welfare of the State, elementary instruction had been provided 
by the State and by charity organizations. A logical result of that 
policy, a step further in the same direction, was the notion of bring- 
ing a better, more complete, and more advanced education within 
the reach of the masses so as to make them efficient members of 
society. The academies were not a sufficient means for the realiza- 
tion of such an aim. Soinething, in addition to them or in the place 
of them, was necessary. 

Between 1825 and 1850 three wholly unsuccessful attempts were 
made to bring secondary education within the reach of all ; in each 
instance the two elements that finally effected the solution of that 
problem were not discovered. In 1853 another plan for the accom- 
plishment of the same purpose, a plan that contained one of the 
necessary elements, public control, was put into operation; but this 
was not entirely successful until the other element, public support, 
was adopted by the laws of 1864 and 1867. 

The monitorial high school was one of the first attempts to pro- 
vide a more democratic secondary school than academies were. The 
plan of the few monitorial high schools, which were confined to the 
decade following 1825, was to apply the Lancasterian method of 
instruction to advanced studies. The best type of this kind of insti- 
tution was the New York (City) High School, established by s 
stock company in 1825. John Griscom, who had observed similar 
institutions in Europe, was one of the leaders in the movement. 
The curriculum ^^ was composed of the same subjects usually taught 
in other secondary schools of that period. The primary and elemen- 
tary departments were not unlike the elementary departments of 
academies.^^ Governor De Witt Clinton was one of the most ardent 
supporters of the scheme that promised a high school education at 
low cost,^'' and in his last message to the Legislature recommended 



" Cf . table 2. 

"An Address at the Opening of the New York High School, by John 
Griscom, 1825. 

" The tuition rates of the New York High School were : Introductory 
department, $3; junior department, $5; and senior department $7 a quarter 
respectively, with a few cents of incidental fees for the last two. Ibid., 
P- 213. 



36 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

a law providing a tax for the erection of such a school in every 
county seat.^^ About ten of these schools were organized in various 
parts of the State; but this attempt at the solution to the problem 
of secondary education was abandoned almost entirely before 1835. 
Another attempt to improve the opportunities for advanced edu- 
cation was in progress during the same decade. The idea of a 
" manual labor school," which has since been realized in successful 
industrial schools, notably Hampton and Tuskegee, was tried in 
connection with secondary education. The curriculum of academies, 
with the addition of a little instruction in trades and skilled labor, 
was adopted by those institutions.^* The labor involved in the 
scheme was usually considered as simply a means of self-support 
for the students, the educative value of it was not recognized, and 
it was not well correlated with the intellectual phase of the school. 
Agriculture, carpenter work, coopering, printing, bookkeeping, and 
other forms of industry were employed in the labor institutes. The 
plan was enthusiastically recommended by legislators,^^ and indorsed 
by Governor Throop.-° But the " labor institutions " never developed 
far enough to menace the dominance of academies in the field of 
secondary education. The few that were established in the decade 
following 1825 soon passed out of existence, leaving the problem 
of popular secondary education still unsolved. 

Elementary Schools 
Until 1814, incorporated academies were the only institutions, 
officially recognized by the State, that were giving instruction in 
elementary subjects; that is except during the five years after the 
act of 1795 when state aid was given to common schools. During 
the period before common schools were established by the State, 
as well as later, the academies instructed a large number of pupils 
of elementary grade. The academies were never simply " secondary 
schools " in the sense that that term is usually used in this country ; 
but they were much Hke the secondary schools of European coun- 



" Messages from the Governors, 1828, v. 3, p. 212. 

'* Cf . table 2. 

'*The literature committee of the Senate in 1830, recommending a loan to 
one of these schools said : " The plan of the Polytechny, is more pecu- 
liarly fitted to the condition of our country, and the nature of its political 
institutions, than that of any other establishment which has come under 
their observation. ... In what better way can it [the diffusion of infor- 
mation to the utmost limits of society] be done, than to foster institutions 
in which the scientific pursuits of the rich, and the laborious operations of 
the poor are united." Senate Document, 1830, no. 124, p. 5, 6. 

" Messages from the Governors, 1832, v. 5, p. 381. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 37 

tries. They taught pupils of all grades from the age of 6 to about 
i8 or 20. In 1787, 12 out of the 53 pupils in Qinton Academy 
were studying advanced subjects, the others elementary subjects.^^ 
In 1807, about two-thirds of the 1490 pupils in the 19 academies 
were pursuing elementaiy studies;-^ and in 1818, the proportion in 
subjects was again about two-thirds. Until late in the century, 
from one-half to three-fourths of the pupils in academies were 
enrolled in elementary grades.-^ The curriculum and instruction of 
academies were extended downward to include all the work gen- 
erally done in elementary schools, so that the functions of these two 
schools overlapped to this extent. 

But a still greater similarity in the curriculums of the two appeared 
for a decade or more after 1835, when elementary schools began to 
extend their curriculum upward to include advanced subjects. 

After the unsuccessful attempts to bring advanced instruction 
within the reach of all by the monitorial high schools and the 
" manual labor institutes," the public common schools were looked 
upon as a means of effecting that object. School officials and legis- 
lators encouraged the practice of offering advanced instruction in 
elementary schools, which could be done freely since the law had 
not prescribed a course of study and textbooks for them.^* The 
arguments that the county superintendents gave for the advantages 
of offering advanced instruction in common schools were: (i) That 
nine-tenths of the pupils do not go beyond the common school ; ^^ 
(2) that good citizens need a knowledge of such subjects as agricul- 
ture, physiology, business forms and civics;"® (3) that pupils spend 
enough time in the lower schools to learn many advanced subjects ; ^^ 
(4) that common and poorer people should be given the opportun- 
ities for education which were enjoyed by the rich.^® The State 
Superintendent also emphasized the importance of extending the 



" Senate Jour., 1788, February 26th. 

^* Assembly Jour., 1808, p. 400. 

"Regents Rep'ts. 

^* Governor De Witt Clinton advanced this idea in 1826. He said that ten 
years of the child's life are spent in the common school, and that "In two 
years the elements of instruction may be acquired, and the remaining eight 
years must either be spent in repetition or in idleness, unless the teachers 
of common schools are competent to instruct in higher branches of knowl- 
edge. The outlines of geography, algebra, mineralogy, agricultural chemistry, 
mechanical philosophy, surveying, geometry, astronomy, political economy, 
and ethics might be communicated in that period of time by able preceptors." 
Messages from the Governors, v. 3, p. 116. 

'' State Sup't Rep't, 1844, p. 167. 

^' Ibid., p. 301, 302. 

" Ibid., p. 169. 

^Loc. cit. 



38 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

course of study in those schools.-^ This movement began early, 
but was especially stressed between 1835 and 1850. In 1846 the 
literature committee of the Assembly reported that a large number 
of districts were teaching algebra, chemistry, astronomy, vocal music, 
natural philosophy ; some were offering instruction in physiology, 
surveying, bookkeeping and higher branches of mathematics ; and 
that no doubt a sound English education could be obtained in com- 
mon schools.^'' 

Table 2 furnishes quantitative information on the extent of 
advanced studies in elementary schools, from the time the movement 
gained importance until near its close. Until 1844, the data of the 
table are based upon the number of towns reporting textbooks in 
the various subjects, but the number of pupils studying each subject 
is not specified, which makes the data indefinite. For example, one 
town in 1833 reported a textbook was used in algebra; this might 
have been used in only one district and by one pupil, or in ten or 
twelve districts and by several hundred pupils. The table shows all 
advanced subjects reported, excepit history, philosophy and rhetoric, 
all of which appear in less than i per cent of the towns. The pro- 
portion of pupils enrolled in each study was probably much smaller. 
The figures indicate that the number of elementary pupils studying 
history was about i per cent of the total enrolment, and the number 
studying all other liiglier subjects was much smaller. ^^ The data 
reported in 1844 ^'^d 1846 are more definite and contain more infor- 
mation. Six subjects, counting chemistry and astronomy as one, 
that might be called advanced, were studied by i per cent or more 
of the whole number of pupils enrolled. 

One conclusion that the table justifies is that a large number of 
common schools were attempting to give much of the instruction 
that had been previously left to academies. It is equally evident 
that this attempt was not extensive enough to deprive the latter of 
much support, nor to reach any considerable number who were 
unable to attend academies. However, it did serve to define the 
issue between academies and free secondary schools and led to a 
beginning of the solution of the question of providing equal oppor- 
tunities for all who desired an education higher than could be 
obtained in the public common schools. 



"^ State Sup't Rep't, 1851, p. 125. 
"Assembly Document, 1846, no. 133. 

^ This estimate is based upon the numbers given for the years 1844 and 
1&46. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 



39 



Table 2 

The extent of advanced studies in the common schools. The per cent of 
the number of towns, or for 1844 and 1846 of the number of pupils, when it 
exceeds i per cent is given in parentheses, in the nearest whole number. 



NUMBER OF TOWNS REPORTING TEXTBOOKS 
USED IN THE VARIOUS SUBJECTS 



1833 1836 



1837 



1838 



1839 



Algebra ... 
Astronomy . 



Blair's lectures . 
Bookkeeping. . . 

Botany 

Chemistry 



Chronology . . 

Civics 

Composition . 



Elocution 

Evidence of Christianity 

Geometry 

Geometry, surveying, 
and higher mathe- 
matics 

Globes and scientific 
apparatus 



Greek 

History, New York . . . . 
History, United States. 

History, other kinds . . . 



Latin 

Mental or moral philos- 
ophy 

Mensuration 

Natural philosophy. . . . 



83 
(10%) 



174 220 

(20%) (25%) 



3 

244 . 
(28%) J 



24 

(3%) 



Navigation . 
Philosophy . 



Physiology 

Political economy . 
Rhetoric *• 



17 
(1%) 



27 

(3%) 

4 



17 
(1%) 



40 

(5%) 

3 



34 
(2%) 



16 

(1%) 



Surveying. . 
Vocal music . 



(1%) 
6 



3 

13 

(1%) 
7 



Number of towns re- 
porting 811 842 853 864 870 

Number of pupils en- 
rolled 494 595 541 404 532 167 524 188 528 913 



NUMBER OF PUPILS RE- 
PORTED ENROLLED IN 
THE VARIOUS SUBJECTS 



1844 1846 1846 

Winter Winter Summer 
session session session 
2 316 3 620 I 706 
217 4 S32 '24 372 



(1%) 

903 922 631 

189 Reported with 
Astronomy in 
1846 



6 000 20 601 14 357 

(4%) 



644 906 646 

2 342 14 298 14 406 



II 139 


14 


(4%) 

161 9 094 


(3%) 




(3%) 


558 




537 478 


4 712 


7 


106 5 ois 


1% 




(2%) 








76 


1 


395 2 172 








10 220 


71 


890 77 921 


(3%) 




(20%) 


36657 782 




... 736 04s 



Notes: '2 Includes chemistry. 

" One " book of commerce " was counted as bookkeeping. 
'■• Textbooks called " expositors " were counted as rhetoric. 
* This number is the attendance for the year. 



40 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

As a result of the extension of the curriculum of academies 
downward to include all elementary subjects, and the attempt to 
make elementary schools assume the task of secondary schools, these 
two classes of schools conflicted. Each accused the other of neglect- 
ing its proper duties and encroaching upon a field foreign to its 
function. The case of the academies as presented by the friends 
of those schools was : ( i ) The common schools in trying to teach 
the advanced subjects neglected elementary studies; (2) as a result, 
academies were compelled to enrol many pupils in elementary 
studies, and so failed to receive the state aid that they would have 
obtained had they been able to enrol those pupils in higher English 
or classical studies; (3) a further injury to academies resulted 
from pupils attending common schools for the study of higher sub- 
jects, because tuition in the latter was lower. This drew the patron- 
age from the academies.^'' The advocates of advanced instruction 
in common schools claimed that academies were aristocratic ; that 
their benefits were confined to a chosen few ; ^^ and that they should 
not injure common schools by drawing elementary pupils from 
them.^^ 

With the coming of union free schools and their academical depart- 
ments in the next decade, 1850-60, the burden of popular and inex- 
pensive secondary education was transferred from the common 
schools, which had proved wholly inadequate for that purpose, to the 
academical departments of union schools, which in turn became the 
rivals of academies. The reconciliation of academies and common 
schools was expressed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
in 1 861. He said no antagonism could exist between the two when 
they were correctly organized and administered, and continued, 
" Each is an indispensable agency in promoting sound and true edu- 
cation ; the common school in the elementary, and the academy in the 
higher departments of instruction. It is a mark of progress that the 
jealousy once existing between them has disappeared." ^^ 

High Schools in Conflict with Academies 

Incorporated academies in the State of New York, at their incep- 
tion and for many years after, were considered the correct solution 
to the problem of secondary education, and the best means of fur- 



'° Regents Rep't, 1845, p. 149. 

''Regents Rep't, 1844, p. 503; 1845, p. 144, 145, I49- 

" State Sup't Rep't, 1843. P- 275. Regents Rep't, 1845, p. 54. 

"Rep't of Sup't of Public Instruction, 1861, p. 35, 36. 



RELAtlON OF ACAIDEMifiS TO OTHER SCHOOLS 4t 

nishing the rising generation an education that would fit them for 
citizenship and the preservation of a republican form of govern- 
ment. The policy of the State was to contribute support to academies 
established by voluntary contributions. It was thought best that 
pupils, who were directly benefited by these schools, should pay a 
tuition fee; just as pupils in common schools were required to pay 
tuition. The idea of free schools supported by public taxation had 
not yet developed. 

The incorporated academies were looked upon as an integral and 
essential part of the state system of education, and not as private 
establishments. Evidence of this attitude is seen in the way they 
were founded, organized and maintained : ( i ) The State specified 
how they should be governed, the powers and limitations of their 
boards of trustees, and also required certain conditions to be met 
before incorporation; (2) a system of supervision and adminis- 
tration was provided for academies by the State; (3) the State 
appropriated large sums of money to academies, not as donations to 
private individuals, but as an aid to institutions that were rendering 
an important service to the State ; a policy that placed these institu- 
tions on the same basis as the common schools which received sup- 
port in the same way ; (4) an academy, as a rule, was regarded as the 
common property of the community where it was located. This is 
apparent from the way communities established and supported them, 
(o) They were often established by voluntary contributions from 
local citizens. The subscription list for the establishment of 
Erasmus Hall contains forty names of persons who gave from 5 to 
10 pounds each.^" Clinton Academy was established in a similar 
way by contributions amounting to £1000.*^ Canton Academy was 
begun in 1831 after the sum of $1250 had been subscribed by 
twenty-five citizens of the town.*" (b) The community in some 
instances was willing to levy a tax for the support of the academy.** 
(5) By special acts, a number of academies were assigned duties 
supplementing the work of common schools. Erasmus Hall was 
given the money appropriated to " Old Town," a part of Flat Bush ; 
and was required to teach a number of poor pupils of the town free 

" Strong, Thomas H., History of Flat Bush in King's County, p. 123, 124. 
Quoted by Boughton, Chronicles of Erasmus Hall, p. 30, 31. It is a matter 
of passing interest to note that this list contains the names of Alexander 
Hamilton and Aaron Burr, each of whom donated £10. 

^ ■" Gardiner L. Lyon, East Hampton. Quoted in New York Historical 
Society, Collections, Publication Fund Series, v. 2, p. 206. 

" Hough, F. B., History of St Lawrence and Franklin Counties, p. 545. 

"Assembly Document, 1831, no. 262, p. i. Session Acts, 1835, chap. 169. 



42 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

of charge.** This was virtually establishing a common school within 
the academy. No sharp distinction was made during the early period. 
The trustees of Farmers' Hall Academy were made by law, upon 
consent of the voters of the village, the directors of the school dis- 
trict in the village.*^ The trustees of Oyster Bay Academy were 
delegated similar powers in their village.**^ The trustees of Mont- 
gomery Academy and their successors were made trustees of school 
district 7 of the town of Montgomery.*^ The Schenectady Lyceum 
and Academy was required to instruct free of charge one pupil, 
chosen yearly by the county school superintendent from each town 
in the county.*^ (6) Academies were officially distinguished from 
private schools.*^ The Regents from the beginning of the Univer- 
sity considered academies " under the auspices of the public."^" The 
literature committees of the Senate and Assembly took the same 
view. It was stated that academies have an intimate connection 
with common schools, " as a part of the same system of public and 
popular education." ^^ 

With the further development of democracy, however, academies, 
which were more expensive than common schools, were looked upon 
as exclusive and aristocratic. The fact that they were not accessible 
to all was recognized by Governor George Clinton. In a message to 
the Legislature he said : " While it is evident that the general estab- 
lishment and liberal endowment of academies are highly to be com- 
mended, and are attended with the most beneficial consequences, 
yet it can not be denied that they are principally confined to the 
children of the opulent, and that a great proportion of the community 
is excluded from their immediate advantages." ^- But this senti- 
ment gained no prominence until the first quarter of the nineteenth 
century had passed, and attempts were begun to diffuse education 
that was not limited to the three R's. It was then seen that as 
academies were free to fix their tuition rates, the expense of attend- 
ing them was a barrier to many ; and at the same time no way was 
seen to control the tuition rates charged. The privilege of deciding 



" Session Acts, 1814, chap. 79. 
*' Session Acts, 1822, chap. 197. 
" Session Acts, 1823, chap. 150. 
*' Laws of 181 5, p. 93. 
** Session Acts, 1837, chap. 95. 
«Cf. tahle I. 

■"Assembly Jour., Dec. 27, 1788; Senate Jour., 1825, p. 580. 
" Report of the committee on colleges, academies and common schools, 
Assembly Document, 1838, no. 236, p. 4. 

" Messages from the Governors, v. 2, p. 350, 1795. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 43 

Upon tuition fees was considered indispensable to the officials of 
academies. Public-spirited individuals then felt that these institu- 
tions were in the way of progress, and called them obsolete and 
unadapted to the times.^^ 

Since monitorial high schools, industrial schools and elementary 
schools had all proved unsuccessful as a means of advancing the 
cause of secondary education, the idea of establishing " free acade- 
mies " supported by public funds was entertained. The issue that 
arose then was, Is the State or community justified in supporting by 
a tax upon all a school that only advanced pupils may attend? The 
negative argument was: (i) It is unjust to grant a superior educa- 
tion free to a favored few. (2) The weak, unfortunate and desti- 
tute members of the community have a stronger claim upon the 
public funds than the intelligent and prosperous, who would be bene- 
fited by such a school.^''* (3) The State is justified only in provid- 
ing education as a police measure, and as a means of educating 
intelligent voters ; both of which are accomplished by the common 
schools. The State has no right to provide training which will enable 
an individual to excel his fellows. ^'^ (4) A state-supported school 
would be at a disadvantage in not being able to ofifer religious instruc- 
tion, for in it " pupils of all sects and creeds must have equal rights." 
(5) The State has no right to tax one person in order to educate 
another, who is able to educate himself.^" 

On the affirmative side it was argued : ( i ) The principle upon 
which our government is founded requires a higher education for the 
voter than was afforded in the common schools. (2) Free secondary 
schools do not discriminate in favor of the wealthy, because they are 
open to all who are qualified academically to attend. All do not 
reach the high school, for the same reason that all men do not reach 
high offices of honor in the state government. ^'^ (3) Tuition fees in 
academies make instruction in them inaccessible to a large number of 
deserving students, so the public money the schools receive is used 
for the benefit of the few.^* 

This discussion near the middle of the century accompanied a 
movement to make secondary education attainable to all deserving 



""Regents Rep't, 1845, p. 150. 

"Horace Greely, in Rep't of State Sup't of Schools, 1851, p. 63, 64. 
" Regents Rep't, 1877, p. 628, 629. 

^' Benedict, E. C, An Address Delivered at the First Anniversary of the 
Free Academy of the City of New York, June 24, 1850. 
" Ibid. 
^ Report of State Sup't of Schools, 1853, p. 14. 



44 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

pupils, by radically modifying academies or substituting a different 
kind of school for them; but it was not until nearly twenty years 
later that academies began to disappear rapidly and to be replaced 
by high schools.^^ 

The transition from academies to high schools is marked by three 
laws of the dates 1853, 1864 and 1867, which represent stages in the 
development of public opinion in favor of high schools. 

The law of 1853, which permitted a number of adjacent rural 
districts to combine and establish a high school, and urban communi- 
ties to maintain similar schools, was preceded by much discussion, 
many recommendations and suggestions, and a number of special 
acts granting the privileges provided by that law to certain schools 
and villages. The Assembly committee on colleges, academies and 
common schools in 1838 advised that districts be authorized to unite 
" to form a high school district and to establish a district high 
school," a plan which they claimed had been tried with success by 
■' some towns in the interior of the State.'"^" A few years later a 
number of county superintendents suggested similar plans of con- 
solidation and gradation ; the higher grades to form a high school.®^ 

One of the early special acts to unite districts to afford opportuni- 
ties for advanced instruction was that of 1834, permitting two dis- 
tricts in the town of Galen, Wayne county, " to form a permanent 
school district to be known by the name of The Clyde High School." 
The trustees of this school were permitted to grant gratuitous tuition 
to the poor.''- The act did not determine the curriculum. The New 
York Free Academy, Lockport Union School, and the village of 
Salem, were some of the places where, by special acts prior to the 
general law of 1853, schools of secondary rank similar to those con- 
templated by the law passed that year, were permitted.^^ The first 
two of these were made free, but Salem was permitted to charge 
tuition for pupils over 16 years of age, or for those " who shall 
pursue studies which said board shall deem should not be tuition 
free." «* 



' Cf . table d. 

' Assembly Document, 1838, no. 236, p. 13, 14- 

'Sup't Rep't, 1843. P- 113; 1844, p. 307, 117. liS. 

' Session Acts, 1834, chap. I75- 

'Session Acts, 1847, chap. 206; 1850, chap. 77; 1851, chap. 206. 

'Session Acts, 1851, chap. 206. par. 112. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 45 

The union free school act contained three provisions, among many 
others not relevant to the present discussion, which were the begin- 
ning of general local tax support and public control of secondary edu- 
cation, the two factors that ultimately led to the displacement of 
academies by high schools. These provisions were : ( i ) The power of 
the board of education of any union free school to " establish in the 
same an academical department " ; ( 2 ) when such department was 
established, it was by this law placed under the visitation of the 
Regents, with the rank and privileges of an academy; (3) an 
academy in the district of a union school was permitted to unite 
with it and become the academical department of the union school.^^ 
But until 1867, there were only 22 academical departments of union 
schools and free academies, and a number of those had been organ- 
ized under special acts.''*' Only 11 of the 22 had been formed by 
adopting an academy as their advanced department."'^ Tuition fees 
were generally charged in academical departments, until they were 
legally abolished by the act of 1864.''* 

Some reasons for the slow development of high schools under the 
law of 1853 were given by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
who said : " The act needs revision. Its provisions are in many 
respects ambiguous, in some contradictory, in others odiously 
unequal." ^^ He explained further that a two-thirds vote was required 
to establish a union district, and a vote of the same majority was 
necessary annually to raise the teachers' salaries and other expenses ; 
that is, where the district in question was not coextensive with a 
city or village. In cities and villages, the tax fixed by the school 
board was required to be assessed without a vote of the citizens. 
The word "free " in the law was a misnomer, because rate bills were 
common in schools established under the act.'^° 

The law of 1864 was an improvement upon the preceding act. It 
represented an attempt to facilitate the establishment of high schools 
by abolishing rate bills. It declared : "Any moneys required to pay 



** An act to provide for the establishment of union free schools, Session 
Acts, 1853, chap. 433, par. 11, 16, 17. 
•* Cf. table 4- 
"' Cf . table 5. 

'* Consolidated School Act, 1864, chap. 555, title IX, sec. 11. 
"Sup't Rep't, 1861, p. 15. 
'"Ibid., p. 15, 16. 



46 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

teachers' wages, in a union free school, or in the academical depart- 
ment thereof, after the due application of the school moneys thereto, 
shall be raised by tax, and not by rate bill." ^^ But partly on 
account of many special acts permitting tuition fees contrary to the 
general law, this provision had but little effect. Even after the free 
school law of 1867 was in operation, at least one district was 
exempted from its provisions in regard to tuition in high schools.^^ 
In 1874, eight secondary schools supposed to be free were receiving 
25 per cent or more of their revenue from tuition fees.^^ They were 
certainly charging tuition, at least for nonresidents. 

During the five years from 1866 to 1871 the number of high 
schools increased from 22 to 59, and the academies decreased at the 
same time from 190 to 132. It is significant that during the last four 
of these five years the general free school law of 1867 was opera- 
tive. The slow growth of high schools and the continued increase 
in the number of academies until rate bills in public schools were 
abolished, point clearly to this one conclusion: so long as rate bills 
were assessed the high schools were poor competitors of academies, 
because the former under those conditions possessed no financial 
advantage. But when tuition fees were abolished in the first and 
retained in the second, academies, rapidly gave way to high schools.'^* 
The comment of the Regents on this situation was " There is a 
natural unwillingness to contribute to the support of one school by 
the payment of tuition, when, at the same time, the law imposes a 
tax for the support of another." ''^ 

In curriculums, and probably in the grade of work done, academies 
and high schools did not differ materially ; but when high schools 



"^ Consolidated School Act, 1864, chap. 555, title IX, sec. 11. 

'^ " The board of education of the union school in district number two of 
the town of Warsaw is hereby authorized to establish rates of tuition in the 
academical department of said union school, and to collect the same in the 
same manner as the trustees of other academies in the State." Session 
Acts, 1868, chap. 222. 

Similar special acts allowing tuition contrai-y to the law of 1864 were: 
Phoenix Union Free School, academical department. Session acts, 1865, chap. 
458, sec. I, par. 14; Jordan Academy, Session Acts, 1867, chap. 43, sec. i, 
par. 4. 

"Cf. table 3. 

"Cf. table 4- 

" Regents Rep't, 1878, p. xi. . , 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 47 

began rapidly to replace academies, the Regents considered the former 
inferior in rank, and suggested that they should be schools for giv- 
ing practical instruction in sciences, bookkeeping, and all subjects 
related to business, trades and minor professions ; and that they 
should be made practical to attract pupils who wanted an education 
for immediate use.'''' Academies, it was claimed, should be used for 
preparing students for college, as they " stood higher in the educa- 
tional scale than academical departments which were difficult to hold 
up to the Regents requirements/'' 

""The experiment of free education in subjects above the grade of com- 
mon school studies is now being made in this State," but attendance in high 
schools is too low as shown by the following figures, which represent the 
conditions in 1865 : 

Number of 

persons in the 

high school 

district Attendance in 

between 12 the high school 
and 21 for the year 

Name of High School years of age 

Auburn High School i 8ss 132 

Buffalo Central School 13 000 154 

Elmira Free Academy 2 240 185 

Lockport Union School I 991 324 

Oswego High School 4 034 1 14 

Rochester Free Academy 11255 228 

Syracuse High School 7 I33 138 

Troy High School 7 935 130 

Utica Academy 4 178 143 

Totals S3 621 I 548 

Per cent of high school population attending, 2.88. This per cent for the whole State was 5.84 
Regents Rep't, 1869, P- xvii, xviii. 

" Regents Rep't, 1878, p. xii ; 1882, p. xiv. 



48 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Table 3 

(Compiled from the Regents Report of 1875, for the year 1874) 

Note: This table shows: (i) What per cent of the total revenue of academies and high schools 
was derived from tuition fees; (2) an estimate of the average tuition fee of each pupil for the year, 
found by dividing the total amount each school received from tuition during the year by the 
annual enrolment. The following will explain the abbreviations used: 

A, Academy I, Institute 

Ac, Academic S, Seminary 

F, Female U. A. D., University Academic Department 

H. S., High School U. S. A. D., Union School, Academic Department 



ACADEMIES 



Adelphi A. 



Albany A . . . 
Albany F. A . 



Albion A. 
Amenia 8. 
Argyle A . 



Augusta A . 
Aurora A . . 



Brookfield A . 

Brooklyn Collegiate 
and Polytechnic I . 



Buffalo F. A . . . 
Canandaigua A. 



Canisteo A. 



HIGH SCHOOLS 



Addison U. S. A. D... 

Aifton u".s. a', b; .'.'!! 



Albany H.S 

Alfred ij.'s' A. b.'.' 
ArcadeU'. S. a'.'d'.! 



Attica U. S. A. D . 
Auburn Ac. H. S. 



Bainbridge U. S. A. D 

Baldwinsville Free A 

Batavia U. S. A. D 

Binghamton Central H. S. 



Buffalo Central School . 



Canastota U. S. A. D. 
Candor Free A 



Gary Collegiate S. 



Cayuga Lake A. 
Oazenovia A . . . 
Chamberlain I . . 



Chilis 

Cincinnatus A. 



Claverack A. and 
Hudson River I . 

Clinton Grammar 

School F. Dep't. 

Clinton Liberal I . . 



Colgate A . 
Cook A... 



Coxsackie A 

Danville A 

Delaware A 

Delaware Literary I. 
Deposit A 



Canton U. S. A. D. . 
Carthage U. S. A. D. 



Castile U. S. A. D. 
Catskill Free A 



Champlain U. S. A. D 

Chester U. S. A. D 



PER CENT OF 

TOTAL REVENUE 

RAISED BY 

TUITION 



Clarence 
School . 



Classical Union 



Cobleskill U. S. A. D . 



Corning Free A . 



Dryden U. S. A. D 

Dunkirk U. S. A. D 



83 



H. S. 



AVERAGE ANNUAL 

TUITION RATE 

PER PUPIL, 

IN DOLLARS 



A. 



7 






71 


27 






50 




SO 









13 


29 






40 


7 






8 


15 




10 






8 




6 


19 




II 




3 




7 






7 




102 









SO 




19 


3 




6 






10 


9 




10 






9 


4 




9 






18 




13 




12 


16 




7 






7 




6 


17 






38 




46 




21 


8 






19 




SS 


4 






12 




10 




10 




12 




8 


14 










H.S. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 



49 



ACADEMIES 



East Bloomfield A . 
East Hamburgh 
Friend's I 



Erasmus Hall A . 

Evans A 

Fairfield A 



Falley S. 



Fort Covington A 

Fort Edward Collegi' 
ate I , 



Fort Plain S. and F 
Collegiate I 



Friend's A 

Friendship A 

Genesee and Wyom- 
ing A 

Genesee Valley S . . . . 
Genesee Wesleyan S. . 
Geneseo A 



Gilbertsville A. 
Glens Falls A . , 



Gouverneur Wesleyan 

S 

Greenville A 



Griffith I . . . 
Half moon A. 
Hartwick S . , 



Hudson A 

Hungerford Collegiate 



Ithaca A. 
IvesS.. . 



Lansingburgh A . . 
Lawrenceville A . . 
Leavenworth I . . . 

Le Roy Ac. I 

Liberty Normal I. 



Low villa A, , 
Macedon A . 



HIGH SCHOOLS 



Egberts H. S 

Elizabethtown U. S. A. D . 

Ellington U. S. A. D 

Elmira Free A 



Fairport U. S. A. D 

Forestville Free A 



Fort Edward U. S. A. D . 



Franklin A. (Malone) . . . . 
Franklin A. (Prattsburg) . 



PER CENT OF 

TOTAL REVENUE 

RAISED BY 

TUITION 



A. 



Geneva Classical and Union 
School 



Gloversville U. S. A. D 



Greenwich U. S. A. D. 
Gr'oton'u. S.'a.D"."..'; 



Hamburgh U. S. A. D 



Haverling U. S. A. D 

Holland Patent U. S. A. D . 

Holley U. S. A. D 

Homer U. S. A. D 

Hoosic Falls U. S. A. D 

Hornell Free A 



Huntington U. S. A. D. 
IlionU. S. A. D 



Jamestown U. S. A. D. 
Johnston U. S. A. D. . . 

Jordan A 

KeesevilleU. S. A. D.. 
Kingston A 



Little Falls U. S. A. D. 
Lockport U. S. A. D... 



Lyons U. S. A. D 

McGrawviilV U. S." A.D. 



H. S. 



60 



AVERAGE ANNUAL 

TUITION RATE 

PER PUPIL 

IN DOLLARS 



H. S. 





13 




16 


12 




12 




10 




4 






33 




8 




27 


S 






18 


23 






4 




17 


2 






32 


27 




17 






24 




9 




II 




6 




II 




28 









9 




12 


2 






6 




? 


6 






8 


6 






II 


9 






II 


7 




16 




S 




10 




6 











34 




19 


21 




3 






13 




8 


42 




10 




24 




16 




? 






13 




6 




I 




26 




7 


8 




18 






II 


4 






13 








(less than l) 



50 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



ACADEMIES 


HIGH SCHOOLS 


PER CENT OF 

TOTAL REVENUE 

RAISED BY 

TUITION 


AVERAGE ANNUAL 

TUITION RATE 

PER PUPIL 

IN DOLLARS 




A. 


H. S. 


A. 


H. S. 


Marion Collegiate I . . 




78 

? 

75 


24 
5 

25 

29 


10 

? 

40 

20 
35 

2 
6 
10 

10 
2 

2 

14 

8 

? 

2 

4 

■■"18 

30 

6 

2 

'■"28 

6 

? 

12 

? 

7 

3 

14 


6 

? 

17 

9 

7 
10 

18 

6 

8 
21 

6 

27 

? 
13 
49 

""16 
67 

30 
19 
3 

'"■■16 
5 

8 

8 

II 

? 

37 

9 

5 

8 

3 

3 

8 
19 








Massena U. S. A. D 

Mayville U. S. A. D 


3 

3 




Medina Free A 


4 






57 
48 
72 
93 

23 
72 
55 

44 
70 

? 

"77 




Middlebury A 






Montgomery A 










Munro Collegiate I . . . 


Moravia U. S. A. D 

Mount Morris U. S. A. D 


5 













Newark Union School and A. . 


4 


New Paltz A 






New York Conference 
S 








Nichols U. S. A. D 

Norwich U. S. A. D 


? 
12 




Olean U. S. A. D 


8 
10 


Ontario F. S 




91 






Oswego H. S 


(less than i) 




Ovid U. S. A. D 




3 








2 


Oxford A 




44 
87 




Packer Collegiate I . . 








Palatine Bridge U. S. A. D. . . 
Palmyra Classical Union 


3 

(less than i) 


Peekskill A 




26 
50 
II 




Penn Yan A 






Perry A 








Phelps Union and Classical 
School 


I 






100 
20 




Pike S 








Plattsburg H. S 


8 






69 

33 

48 
51 
94 




Pulaski A 


Port Byron Free School and A . 
Port Jervis U. S. A. D 


5 

? 


Red Creek Union S . . 












Rochester F. A 










2 


Rogersville Union S. . 




60 
37 

■■■■76 




Rural S 


Rome U. S. A. D 


I 


Sauquoit A 


Rushville U. S. A. D 

Sandy Creek U. S. A. D 

Sandy Hill U. S. A. D 

Saratoga Springs U. S. A. D. . 


2 
7 
5 

I 




Schenectady U. S. A. D 

Schoharie U. S. A. D 

Seneca Falls A 


7 
5 
? 


Sherman A. 


Sherburne U. S. A. D 


19 

27 
34 
6S 


3 


Sodus A 


Sherman U. S. A. D 

Skaneateles U. S. A. D 


? 
2 








Starkey S 










2 




Ten Broeck Free A 




4 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 



51 



AC.VDEMIES 



HIGH SCHOOLS 



PER CENT OF 

TOTAL REVENUE 

RAISED BY 

TUITION 



A. 



H.S. 



AVERAGE ANNUAL 

TUITION RATE 

PER PUPIL 

IN DOLLARS 



H.S. 



Troy A . 



Trumansburgh A . . . . 

Unadilla A 

Union A of Belleville 



Warrensburgh A 



Troy H. S. 



West Winfield A. 
Whitestown S . . . 



Woodhull A. 
Yates A 



Utica (Free) A 

Vernon A 

Wallkill A 

Walton U. S. A. D . 



Warsaw U. S. A. D 

Warwick I 

Washington A 

WaterfordU. S. A. D 

Waterloo U. S. A. D 

Watertown H. S 

WatervilleU. S. A. D 

Watkins Ac. Union School. 

Waverly U. S. A. D 

Weedsport U. S. A. D 

West Winfield U. S. A. D . 
West Hebron U. S. A. D. . 
Westport U. S. A. D 



Whitehall U. S. A. D . 



Whitney's Point U. S. A. D. 

Wilson U. S. A. D 

Windsor U. S. A. D 



Yates U. S. A. D.. 



96 



18 



28 



The typical academy, supported chiefly by tuition, incorporated by 
the Legislature or the Regents, and controlled by a board of trustees 
who were not elected by the people, was distinct from the typical 
high school, which was supported chiefly by taxation, and controlled 
by a board of education elected by popular vote; but many institu- 
tions did not conform strictly to either of these types, thus making it 
difficult to decide in some instances whether a particular school 
should be called an academy or a high school. There was a lack of 
discrimination in the following respects : 

1 The name applied to a school was not characteristic of its type. 
(a) The New York High School of 1825 was an incorporated mon- 
itorial school, controlled by a stock company offering instruction in 
all branches, and was not free, (b) The New York Free Academy 
was in nearly every respect a high school. High schools under the 
name of academy were not always called " free." 

2 The source of support did not differentiate the two kinds of 
schools. In 1874, eleven high schools were receiving 25 per cent or 



5:2 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

more of their support from tuition ; while ten academies were 
receiving less than 25 per cent of their support from tuition.'* 

3 The nature of the local board of control would, as a rule, decide 
to what class a school belonged ; but there was confusion even in this 
respect. The board in charge of the Franklin (Free) Academy at 
Malone in 1867 was composed of five elected trustees, and five trus- 
tees of Franklin Academy, but it was not made free to all residents 
of the school district until 1880.''^ 

It is evident that at the time of transition in the state system of 
secondary education, there were a number of schools that were 
neither exactly academies nor high schools. The Regents mentioned 
this situation in 1875. In case of high schools, " there is much con- 
fusion in names, produced mainly by many having been organized 
under special laws," and some academies " though connected with 
public schools which in other departments are free, are supported by 
the payment of tuition." ^° 

Nearly every combination of support and control was tried. 
Warsaw High School was under a board elected by popular vote, 
but was supported by tuition. Ten Broeck Free Academy was sup- 
ported chiefly by endowment, but controlled by a board of trustees 
who were appointed by the county judge and surrogate, and the 
supervisors of the towns of Farmersville. Machias, and Franklin- 
ville, and who served indefinitely.^^ The Regents classified this 
school as an academy. 

Table 4, compiled from Regents Reports, shows the numerical 
relation between academies and high schools during the second half 
of the nineteenth century.*^ 



'•' Cf. table 3- 

" Regents Rep't, 1890, p. 1823. 

*" Regents Rep't, 1875, P- xii. 

*^ Session Acts, 1862, chap. 353. Catalog of Ten Broeck Free x\cademy, 
1891, last page. 

*A number of contradictions and evident inaccuracies occur in some of 
the Regents Reports used in compiling this table. The data have been 
checked in various w^ays to obtain the most reliable information. For exam- 
ple, the Regents Report of 1882, p. xiii, gives the number of high schools 
that were in operation in 1870-71, as 45. The Regents Report of 1869, p. 
xvi, xvii, contains the names of 23 academies that had been transformed 
into high schools, and the names of 30 additional and separate schools that 
were classed as high schools. On page xxi of the same report the name of 
another high school not included in the other lists is given. This makes a 
total of 54 high schools that were established before 1869. The Regents 
Reports of 1870, p. xii; 1871, p. xiii; and 1872, p. viii. contain the names of 
four high schools admitted as Regents schools by the year 1870-71. With 
the 54 given in 1869, this makes a total of 58 for the year 1870-71, not 
including Ten Broeck Free Academy. 







WHOLE NUMBER OF 






NUMBER REPORTING 


PUPILS ENROLLED 






TO THE REGENTS 


FOR THE 


YEAR 








High 




ITigh 


OF THE STATE 


Academies 


schools 


A cademics 


schools 


OF 


NEW YORK 


163 


3 


27 653 


I 184 




3 097 394 


155 


9 


36 S8s 


2 149 




3 466 212 


170 


22 


29 061 


7 072 




3 880 735 


167 


35 


29 423 


6 710 




3 831 777 


115 


67 


19 717 


10 596 




4 382 759 


97 


119 


15 932 


14 222 




4 698 958 


82 


IS5 


12 116 


18 983 




S 082 871 


71 


190 


12 265 


24 778 




? 


99 


236 


IS 271 


34 243 




5 997 8S3 


131 


373 


II 220 


38 717 




? 



relation of academies to other schools 53 

Table 4 

The relation between academics and high schools in number of each 
reporting to the Regents and in number of pupils enrolled in each for the 
year is shown in this table. Cf. tables i and 2. 

(Based upon Regents Reports for the corresponding years) 



YEAR 

1850 

I8SS 

i860 

i86s 

1870 

187s 

1880 

188s 

1890 

189s 

1900 140 s6s 12 722 66 929 7 268 894 



Table 4 shows that : ( i ) Academies were the principal secondary 
schools in the State, judged by the number of institutions and the 
number of pupils in attendance, until about 1875. In 1875-76, the 
number of high schools for the first time exceeded the number of 
academies, and the number of pupils attending the academies at that 
time was greater than the number attending high schools. (2) The 
high schools had made nearly all their progress and academies had 
declined most rapidly during the ten years preceding 1875, which 
was a period of rapid transition from academies to high schools. 
(3) The process of transition continued until 1885-86, when the 
readjustment was apparently complete, and each kind of school had 
found its place. 

The rapidity of transition from academies to high schools after 
conditions were made favorable is explained in part by the merging 
of academies with union schools in the same district, as authorized 
by the law of 1853.^^ In communities where the academy was 
looked upon as one of the public institutions of the locality, which 
was probably the case in most communities, the reorganization meant 
only a change in fonn, a different method of support, and a readjust- 
ment. It was neither depriving the community of any privileges, 
nor entirely abolishing a cherished institution, and not imposing a 



Session Acts, 1853, chap. 433, par. 17. 



54 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

new burden. The board of trustees of the passing academy and the 
board of education placed in charge of the new high school were no 
doubt composed of the same individuals in many instances, so the 
personnel of the governing body was not changed.®* 

The teachers of the academy going out of existence were often 
taken over by the new organization. Out of 64 academies that had 
merged in high schools before 1874, 15 had retained the principal of 
the former academy as principal of the high school.*^ Tables 5 
and 7 show that l)y the year 1874, 112 academies had disappeared, 
and high schools had taken their places. Of this number, 64 had 
been merged in high schools. The other 48 had gone out of existence 
entirely, but high schools had been organized in the same districts 
or villages to take their places. Ten other academies had become 
extinct by that time, 4 of which had been reorganized into normal 
schools and 6 had expanded into colleges. In addition to the 122 
extinct academies accounted for above, a number of others had dis- 
appeared before 1874, and had not yet been superseded by any other 
kind of secondary school. 

Colleges 

The framers of the fundamental educational law of the State 
contemplated establishing a close relation between academies and 
colleges. They considered the former preparatory to the latter, and 
provided that students from academies should upon examination be 
admitted to any college under the visitation of the Regents. But 
it is evident that they intended academies to be more than prepara- 
tory schools, because it was specified that when " the state of Litera- 
ture in any academy is so far advanced, and the funds will permit 
thereof " the academy might be reorganized into a college.®" 



*' Regents Rep't, rSgo, p. 1823. 

'' Cf . table S- 

'"Session Acts, 1787, chap. 82, art. XIX. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 



55 



Table 5 

(Compiled from Regents Reports) 

This table contains a list of academies that, previous to 1874, were transf-armed into high 
schools, according to the law of 1853, the law of 1864, or special acts, and the names of the high 
schools thus formed. 

The column on the left of the page contains the names of the academies, and the date following 
each is when it was incorporated or recognized by the Regents. The column on the right contains 
the names of the high schools, and the date preceding each represents the year the transformation 
was effected. The abbreviations used are the same as those for table 3. 



ACADEMIES 

Academy at Little Falls 1844 

Addison A 1849 

Ames Academy 1839 

Arcade A 1862 

Auburn A 1815 

Balis 1843 

Binghampton A 1842 

Cambridge Washington A. . . 1815 

Canton A 1840 

Champlain A 1842 

Chester A 1844 

Clarence A 1854 

Cortland A 1819 

East Genesee Conference S.. . 1864 

Ellington A 1853 

Elmira A 1840 

Fort Covington A 1 83 1 

Franklin A (at Malone) 1 831 

Franklin A (at Prattsburg) . . . 1824 

Gloversville Union S 1855 

Groton A 1839 

Hamilton A 1824 

Holley A 1850 

Jamestown A 1839 

Jefferson County 1 1846 

Johnstown A I794 

Jordan A 1842 

Keeseville A 1839 

Kingston A 1795 

Manlius A 1839 

Mayville A 1839 

Monroe A 1843 

Moravia 1 1840 

Newburgh A 1 806 

New York Central A 1864 

Norwich A 1843 

Ogdensburg A 1839 

Olean A 1853 

Onondaga A 1813 

Owego A 1828 

Plattsburg A 1829 

Richburg A 1850 

Rushford A 1852 

Sag Harbor I 1848 

Schoharie A 1839 

Seneca Falls A 1839 

Sherburne Union A 1840 

Spencertown A 1847 

Union Village A 1840 

Utica A 1814 

Vernon A 1839 

WallkillA 1842 

Walton A 1854 

Warwick 1 1854 

Washington A (at Salem) 1791 

Waterford A 1839 

Waterloo A 1842 

Watkins A i85o 

Waverly 1 1858 

Westfield A 1839 

West Hebron Classical School 1855 

Wilson Collegiate 1 1846 

Windsor A 1849 

Vates Polytechnic I i8S3 



SAME 




PRINCIPAL 




RETAINED 




Yes 


1873 


Yes 


1869 


Yes 


1872 


Yes 


1867 


No 


1866 


No 


1863 


No 


1861 


? 


1873 


No 


1869 


No 


1873 


Nq 


1869 


No 


1869 


No 


1873 


No 


1873 


No 


1872 


Yes 


1859 


Yes 


1853 


No 


1867 


Yes 


1870 


No 


1868 


No 


1872 


? 


1869 


No 


1868 


No 


1866 


No 


1865 


No 


1870 


No 


1867 


Yes 


1873 


Yes 


1864 


? 


1870 


No 


1868 


No 


1871 


? 


1868 


? 


i8S3 


No 


1868 


Yes 


1873 


Yes 


l8S7 


No 


1868 


No 


1866 


No 


1869 


No 


1867 


No 


1873? 


No 


1867 


No 


1862 


No 


1873 


Yes 


1867 


? 


1867 


Yes 


1870 


Yes 


1868 


No 


I8S3 


No 


186s 


No 


1868 


No 


1868 


Yes 


1868 


No 


i8S3 


No 


1871? 


? 


185s 


Yes 


1863 


No 


1872 


No 


1868 


? 


1858 


No 


1869 


No 


1871 


No 


1868 



HIGH SCHOOLS 

Little Falls U. S. A. D. 

Addison U. S. A. D. 

Ames U. S. A. D. 

Arcade U. S. A. D. (Laws '67, ch. 944) 

Auburn Ac. H. S. 

Hoosick Falls U. S. A. D. 

Binghampton Central H. S., U. S. A. D. 

Cambridge Washington A, U. S. A. D. 

Canton A, U. S. A. D. 

Champlain U. S. A. D. 

Chester U. S. A. D. 

Parker Union Free School 

Homer U. S. A. D. 

Ovid U. S. A. D. 

Ellington U. S. A. D. 

Elmira Free A 

Fort Covington A, U. S. A. D. 

Franklin (Free) A, U. S. A. D. 

Franklin Free A, U. S. A. D. 

Gloversville U. S. A. D. 

Groton U. S. A. D. 

Hamilton U. S. A. D. 

Holley U. S. A. D. 

Jamestown Union School and Colle- 
giate I 

Watertown H. S. 

Johnstown U. S. A. D. 

Jordan (Free) A 

Keeseville U. S. A. D. 

Kingston (Free) A 

Manlius U. S. A. D. 

Mayville U. S. A. D. 

East Henrietta U. S. A. D. 

Moravia U. S. A. D. 

Newburgh Free School. (at first i 
common school) 

McGrawville U. S. A. D. 

Norwich U. S. A. D. 

Ogdensburg (Free) Educational I 

Olean U. S. A. D. 

Onondaga (Free) A 

Owego (Free) A 

Plattsburg H. S., U. S. A. D. 

Richburg A, U. S. A. D. 

Rushford A, U. S. A. D. 

Sag Harbor U. S. A. D. 

Schoharie U. S. A. D. 

Seneca Falls (Free) A, U. S. A. D. 

Sherburne U. S. A. D. 

Spencertown (Free) A, U. S. A. D. 

Greenwich U. S. A. D. 

Utica Free A (first a common school) 

Vernon U. S. A. D. 

Middletown U. S. A. D. 

Walton U. S. A. D. 

Warwick I, U. S. A. D. 

Salem U. S. A. D. (also Laws '51, ch. 
206) 

Waterford U. S. A. D. 

Waterloo U. S. A. D. 

Watkins U. S. A. D. 

Waverly U. S. A. D. 

Westfield U. S. A. D. 

West Hebron U. S. A. D. 

Wilson U. S. A. D. 

Windsor U. S. A. D. 

Yates U. S. A. D. 



TIIU ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STAT^ OF NEW YORK 



Table 6 

(Compiled from Regents Reports) 

This table contains a list of academies that, previous to 1874, had been reorganized into normal 
schools or colleges. The arrangement of dates and names is the same as for table 5. 



ACADEMIES 

Brockport Collegiate 1 1842 

Cortlandville A 1843 

Fredonia A 1830 

St Lawrence A 18 16 

Geneva A 1813 

Hamilton Oneida A 1793 

Ingham Collegiate I 1853 

Rutgers F. I 1840 

Schenectady A 1793 

Wells S. o 1868 



NORMAL SCHOOLS 

1867 Brockport Normal School 

1868 Cortland Normal School 

1866 Fredonia Normal School 
1868 Potsdam Normal School 

COLLEGES 

1824 Geneva College 

1 81 2 Hamilton College 

1857 Ingham University 

1867 Rutgers Female College 
1795 Union College 

1870 Wells College 



o Did not report to Regents 



Table 7 

(Compiled from Regents Reports) 

This table contains a list of academies that had become extinct before 1874, and which had 
been replaced by public high schools, which were organized independently either before the 
academy had passed out of existence or afterward. 

The dates following the names of the academies show when the institution was incorporated 
or recognized by the Regents. In case the school was incorporated by the Legislature and never 
recognized by the Regents, the date of its incorporation is preceded by the letter L. 

The column on the right contains a list of academic departments of public schools, or high 
schools, and the date preceding each shows when it was recognized by the Regents. 

Those acai"»Tiies and high schools that were in the same lace, village or city, appear in the 
columns opposite each other. 

The abbreviations of names are the same as those used in table 3. 



ACADEMIES 

Albany Female Seminary 1828 1 

Albany Pearl Street A L1836 J 

Auburn Female Seminary 1840 

Batavia Female A 1839 \ 

Catskill A 1804 / 

Catskill Classical School L1832 \ 

Catskill Female Seminary L1820 J 

Clarkson A 1835 

Coopertown Female A L1822 1 

Coopertown S. and F. CoUgte. I. . 1854 J 

Cortland Female Seminary L1828 

Dunkirk A L1837 

Eastern Collegiate I. of New York 

City L1844 

Elmira Collegiate S l8S3 

Essex County A 1838 

Genesee Seminary L1835 

Grammar School of New York 

Central College 1858 

Hobart Hall 1840 

Lockport A L1841 

Lyons A L1837 1 

Lyons A L1840 J 

Monroe A L1827 

New York High School L182S 

Norwich Union Seminary L1837 

Otsega A 1 796 

Palmyra A L1842 \ 

Palmyra High School 1833 J 

Penn Yan Female A (General Law) 1853 

Rhinebeck A 1841 

Rochester I of General Education. L1828 1 
Rochester I of Practical Education L1832 J 

Sandy Hill A L1836 

Saratoga A and Scientific I L183S 

Schenectady Lyceum and A 1839 \ 

Schenectady Young Ladies' S. . . . 1839 / 
Seward F. S. of Rochester 1840 



HIGH SCHOOLS 

1873 Albany High School 

1866 Auburn Academic High School 

1861 Batavia U. S. A. D. 

1868 Catskill Free A 

Li8s9 Clarkson H. S. (Extinct in 1874) 

1873 Coopertown U. S. A. D. 

1843 Cortlandville A 

1871 Dunkirk U. S. A. D. 

1849 New York Free A 
1863 Elmira Free A 

1863 Westport U. S. A. D. 

1861 Batavia U. S. A. D. 

i860 McGrawville U. S. A. D. 

1 87 1 Holland Patent U. S. A. D. 

1850 Lockport U. S. A. D. 

i8s7 Lyons U. S. A. D. 

1 87 1 East Henrietta U. S. A. D. 

1849 New York Free A 

1873 Norwich U. S. A. D. 

1873 Coopertown U. S. A. D. 

1858 Palmyra Classical Union School 

i860 Penn Yan U. S. A. D. 

1874 Rhinebeck U. S. A. D. 

1862 Rochester Free A 

1871 Sandy Hill U. S. A. D. 

1868 Saratoga Springs U. S. A. D. 

1854 Schenectady U. S. A. D. 

1862 Rochester Free A 



KELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 57 

ACADEMIES HIGH SCHOOLS 

Skaneateles Seminary L1829 1868 Skaneateles U. S. A. D. 

Susquehanna Seminary 1854 1861 Binghamton Central H. S. 

Syracuse A 1830 1862 Syracuse H. S. 

Troy Episcopal I L1839 1863 Troy High School 

Washington A (at Warwick) 181 1 1854 Warwick Institute, U. S. A. D. 

Waterford Female A" L1819 1871 Waterford U. S. A. D. 

Watertown A L183S 1866 Watertown High School 

Wayne and Ontario Collegiate I . . i8ss 1863 Newark Union School and S. 

Weedsport A Li838 1873 Weedsport U. S. A. D. 

wSaii a:::::::::::: :::::::: ''Si} '«^^ whitehau u. s. a. d. 

Yates County A and F. S 1830 i860 Penn Yan U. S. A. D. 

•'Moved to Troy, and continued as Troy Female Seminary. 

Preparation of pupils for college entrance was not the most impor- 
tant function of academies at any time before 1875. Evidence of 
this is seen in the following facts: (i) The curriculums of acad- 
emies far exceeded college entrance requirements, which were prin- 
cipally Latin, Greek and mathematics until about 1875.®^ (2) The 
number of pupils attending academies was far in excess of the num- 
ber entering or attending colleges of the State.^^ The number of 
students entering colleges in the State until the middle of the nine- 
teenth century is indicated in table 8. The number of graduates, 
those receiving the B. A. degree, for the years when the number of 
freshmen was not reported, represents approximately the number 
entering. The per cent of those attending academies who entered 
college, assuming that all who entered came from academies, is very 
low. If the number entering college is compared with one-fourth 
of the attendance in academies, the number that might be supposed 
to have completed the preparatory course each year, the per cent is 
some higher.^" The large number of elementary pupils attending 
academies would tend to make the average number of years spent 
by a pupil in an academy high, and if this fact were considered, the 
per cent of pupils completing the academy course of study each year 
who could possibly have entered colleges in the State would be 
increased. But there are no available data to determine such facts. 
However, the data of table 7 afford evidence that during the time 
specified the academies were not primarily preparatory schools. (3) A 
number of the more important colleges maintained a preparatory 



" Cf. table 2. 

** Of course, some students from academies in the State of New York 
entered colleges in other states, but this factor would be counterbalanced by 
the number entering colleges in New York who were prepared in other 
states. 

•" Cf. table 8. 



58 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

school of their own, or were affiiHated with one in the same city, until 
late in the nineteenth century. Columbia College maintained a gram- 
mar school as a preparatory institution from 1763 to 1864.^^ Union 
College used Schenectady Academy for the same purpose.^- The 
University of the City of New York maintained a grammar school 
for a few years after 1837. It was incorporated by the Regents in 
1838 as the Grammar School of the University of the City of New 
York. Colgate Academy was associated with Madison University 
as a preparatory school after 1853. 

Table 8 indicates that the number of pupils whom incorporated 
academies prepared for college was small in proportion to the whole 
number attending academies. The data reported before 1805 are 
so meager and irregular that they are scarcely significant. The 
proportion prepared for college decreased after 1805, but slowly 
and to a small extent. Considering the large number of elementary 
pupils enrolled in academies, it is not surprising that such a small 
proportion of the whole number attending can be counted among 
those that probably entered college. When only those students in 
advanced studies in academies are considered, the per cent of the 
maximum possible number entering college is much higher. 

In the second half of the century, some who were conducting 
academies felt that the few pupils preparing for college received 
too much attention, and that so much time should not be spent in 
teaching the Latin and Greek demanded for college entrance. They 
considered the most important work of academies to consist " not 
in preparing a few hundred for college, but in educating many thou- 
sands who never think of college." °^ It is evident that academies 
prepared many for college, but that many more, who never intended 
to attend college, were educated in academies. The large number 
of girls in academies were for the most part in the latter class. 

A comparison of the curriculums of colleges and academies for 
the first part of the nineteenth century, shows that academies were 
offering nearly all the subjects found in college curriculums. It is 
also apparent that new subjects, such as those in science, history, and 



Regents Rep't, 1890, p. 543, 544- 
Session Acts, 1818, chap. 192; 1831, chap. 27;^. 
'Regents Rep't, 1867, p. 665, 666, 671. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 



59 



literature, which appeared in colleges then were readily taken up 
by the secondary schools. 

The tendency of academies to aspire to the work of colleges is 
seen in the fact that by 1870 six institutions that had been organized 
as academies had been expanded into colleges. 

Table 8 

Relation between the number of students entering or graduating from 
colleges of the State and the number of pupils enrolled in academies at the 
date of report, probably about the average number for the year. 



NUMBER OF FRESHMEN OR SENIORS IN COLLEGES 

C> H; tei o J5 



w pe to z 
a p o " 
H to : 



1790 


7s 






1795 


265 






1800 


165 


IS 




I80S 


19s 


13s 




I8I0 


2gs 


275 




I8I5 


19s 


39s 




1820 


13s 


16 




182s 


21J 


62s 




1830 


195 


96s 




183s 


24s 


885 




1840 


30 


31 


18 


184s 


32 


32 


37 


1850 


28 


9 


13 



38 
30 



in 

« 


to 

< 




a, < 


H 

z 

u 
u 




H 


<2 «i 

" « w 

- m S 
P z 


H 


^ 


ft. < 


« 


; 


IflZ < 









to 






H 


z 




0. 






IS 




isoa 






4.66 


265 




451 






5. 76 


23s 




191 






12.04 


32s 




6S3 






4.90 


S65 


I 


8196 






3 07 


S8s 


2 


887(; 






2.00 


29 


2 


230 






1.30 


835 


2 


446 






3-39 


IIS5 


4 


303 






2.67 


II2S 


5 


548 






2.00 


144 


II 


477 






1.25 


164 


12 


608 






1.30 


13s 


IS 


477 






.87 



s Seniors, where the number in the freshman class is not given, 
freshmen. 
a For 1788. 
h For 1812, 
c For 1 816. 



The other numbers refer 1 3 



6o 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Table 9 

Curriculums of six typical institutions, college, academy, monitorial high 
school, manual labor institute, public high school, and elementary school, 
between 1825 and 1850 (References are given at the foot of the table) 







MONITORIAL 


LABOR 


PUBLIC 


COMMON 


COLLEGE 


ACADEMY 


HIGH SCHOOL 


INSTITUTE 

Oneida 


HIGH SCHOOL 


SCHOOLS 






New York 


Institute of 




All considered 


Union 


Erasmus 


(City) 


Industry 


Lockporl 


but subjects not 


College 


Hall 


High School 


and Science 


Union School 


taught in all 


1831 


1831 


182s 


1820 


J 8 50 


1835 


Algebra 


Algebra 




Algebra 


Algebra 




Anatomy 








Anatomy 




Antiquities, 


Antiquities, 


Antiquities 








Roman 


Roman 










Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic, 
advanced 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 


Astronomy 




Astronomy 
Belles letters 




Astronomy 


Astronomy 




Bookkeeping 




Bookkeeping 


Bookkeeping 


Blackstone 












Botany, lectures on 








Botany 




Calculus, differen- 












tial and integral 












Chemistry, lectures 


; on 


Chemistry 




Chemistry 


Chemistry 


and Kames 










Civics 


Composition 




Composition 




Composition 




Conic sections 












Declamation 








Declamation 




Electricity, mag- 












netism, and op- 












tics, lectures on 












Elements of criti- 












cism 




Elocution 






Elocution 


Evidence of Chris- 












tianity 












French 




French 




French 






Geography 


Geography 

Geology 

Geometry 


Geography 


Geography 


Geography 


Geometry, analyt- 


Geometry 


Geometry 


Geometry 


Geometry 


Geometry, descrip- 

t ive 
Geometry, plane 






















Geometry, solid 














Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 


Grammar 






(English) 




(English) 


(English) 




Greek 


Greek 


Greek 
Gymnastics 


Greek 


Greek 




Hebrew 












History, Titter's 


History 


History 




History 
(general) 


History (New 
York) 


Intellectual philos- 










History United 


ophy 
Kent 










States, 
History, other 
kinds 


Latin 


Latin 


Latin 


Latin 


Latin 


Literature, biblical, 












lectures on 












Logic 




Mapping 


Logic 






Mechanics 








Mensuration 


Mensuratio n 


Mineralogy 




Mineralogy 








Moral philosophy 






Moral philos- 






Natural history 




Natural history 






Natural philos- 


Natural 


Natural phi- 




Natural phi- 


Natural philos- 


ophy 


philosophy 


losophy 




losophy 


ophy 


Natural theology 


Navigation 






Orthography 




Oratory, lectures 








Penmanship 




on 




Physical geog- 
raphy 






Philosophy 


Physiology 




(climate 




Physiology 




Political economy 




seasons) 




Pronunciation 

Reading 

Rhetoric 




Rhetoric 


Rhetoric 


Rhetoric 


Rhetoric 


Rhetoric 




Surveying 




Surveying 


Surveying 


Surveying 


Trigonometry, 

plane 
Trigonometry, 




Trigonometry 




Trigonometry 














spherical 













RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 6l 

References 

Union College: Assembly Documents, 1832, v. 3, no. 271, table opposite 
p. 4. 

Erasmus Hall : Assembly Document, 1832, v. 2, no. J2, table opposite p. 14. 

New York (City) High School: John Griscom, Address at the Opening 
of the New York (City) High School, p. 51, 52, 53, 54. 

Oneida Institute of Industry and Science : Legislative Documents, 1830, 
no. 216, talble opposite p. 8. 

Lockport Union School: Regents Report, 1851, p. 172-83. 

Common schools : Superintendent of Common Schools, Report of 1836, 
p. 115, 116, 119. 

Note: The New York (City) High School and the common schools taught all the common 
elementary subjects in addition to those mentioned in the above table. The extent to which the 
latter offered advanced subjects is shown in table 2. 

More definite information concerning the number of pupils 
enrolled in academies preparing for college and who actually entered 
college is furnished by the Regents Report after 1885. These data 
corroborate some of the earlier and less definite information, 
although they were not reported systematically and ceased entirely 
before the close of the century. 

Table 10 

Number of pupils enrolled in high schools and academies who were pre- 
paring for college, and the number of such who entered college in 1894, 1895, 
1896. 

(Compiled from Regents Reports) 

WHOLE NUMBER NUMBER WHO PER CENT OF 

ENROLLED FOR WERE PREPARING TOTAL NUMBER 

THE YEAR FOR COLLEGE ENROLLED PREPAR- 

YEAR ING FOR COLLEGE 

1885 37043 2418 6.53 

1887 39523 2964 7.50 

1890 49514 4143 8.37 

189s 49937 23006 4.6i<^ 

1896 ID 272," 850" 8.276 

Table 10 shows that during the decade following 1885 the num- 
ber preparing for college increased about 2 per cent. One would 
expect the number entering college in one year to be about one- 
fourth the whole number preparing for college, or the number enter- 
ing college in two years to be one-half the number preparing. Upon 
this basis, the number entering college in the two years preceding 
1896 would be about 2071 (one-half of 4142), which is very near 
the actual number, 2300. The difference in these two numbers corre- 
sponds to the slight increase in the total number enrolled for 1896 
over the year 1890. By this means of comparing the numbers pre- 

a This number is for academies only. 

& This is the number for academies and high schools that actually entered college in 1894 and 
1895 (two years). 

e The number attending acader.iies only who entered college in the two years 1895 and 1896. 

d The per cent of the total enrolment that entered college in the two years 1894 and 189s. 

e Per cent of total enrolment in academies alone that entered college in the two years 1805 and 
1896. 



62 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

paring with those entering college, it is probable that about 33 per 
cent of the pupils enrolled in academies in 1896 were preparing for 
college entrance. The conclusion drawn from this somewhat meager 
evidence is that academies toward, the close of the nineteenth century 
were becoming " feeders for colleges," which could not be said of old- 
time academies. 

A list of all the subjects in the various curriculums of academies 
in 181 2, and the curriculum of Columbia College two years before 
that date, with the dates when the subjects of the latter were first 
reported taught in any academy, will show how the majority of new 
subjects first appeared in the college curriculum. 

Table ii 

A comparison of college and academy curriculums 

All subjects taught in academies in 
1812 »6 



Dates when the subjects in 




Number 


Columbia's curriculum of 




of acad- 


1810 or equivalent sub- 




emies 


jects first appeared in the 




offering 


curriculum of an academy »* 


Name of subject 


it 



Curriculum of Columbia 
College in 1810 " 

Algebra Algebra, 1825 

Analysis of intellectual powers Intellectual philosophy, 

1826 

Antiquities, Grecian Grecian antiquities, 1828 

Antiquities, Roman Roman antiquities, 1827 

Astronomy Astronomy, 1797 Astronomy i 

Belles letters Belles letters, 1817 Bookkeeping 21 

Chronology Chronology, 1826 

Composition Composition, 1804 

Conic sections Conic sections, 1827 

Criticism Criticism, 1826 

Declamation Declamation, 1787 

Ethics Ethics, 1827 

Fluctions Fluctions, 1827 

Geography Geography, 1787 French 2 

Geometry Geometry, 1825 Geography 3 

Grammar (English) Grammar (English), 1787 . Elementary Enghsh (Gram- 
mar) 21 

Greek Greek, 1787 Greek 20 

History History, 1787 

Latin Latin, 1787 Latin 20 

Law of nature ? Logic 5 

Mathematics Mathematics, 1787 Mathematics 21 

Moral p}iilosophy i 

Natural philosophy Natural philosophy, 1787 . . Natural philosophy 4 

Penmanship 21 

Reading Reading, 1787 Reading 21 

Rhetoric Rhetoric, i799 Rhetoric S 

Science of mind, &c Intellectual philosophy, 

1826 

Trigonometry Trigonometry, 1826 

Trigonometry, spherical Trigonometry, spherical, 

1831 

Of the twenty-seven subjects offered by Columbia in i8ro, only 
twelve had appeared in the curriculums of academies; and most 
of the twelve were ordinary subjects such as Latin, Greek and mathe- 
matics that had been in the curriculums of colleges for centuries. 

»< History of Columbia University 1754-1904, p. 90, 91. 

»5 Cf . tables 3 and 4. 

»« Assembly Jour., 1813, p. 496. The number of academies reporting in 1812 was 21. 



RELATION OF ACADEMIES TO OTHER SCHOOLS 63 

Five subjects were taught in academies in 1812 that did not appear 
in the curricukim of Cokimbia in 1810. 

New subjects offered by colleges were soon adopted by academies 
which, during the second and third quarters of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, were offering nearly all the subjects in college curriculums of 
the period.^^ 

Conclusions 

1 Many types and varieties of schools were in operation in New 
York during the nineteenth century. Complexity of the educational 
situation was due chiefly to two conditions: (a) Local option in the 
establishment, support, and control of schools was the rule; (h) spe- 
cial legislation granted local privileges and in some instances 
immunity from general laws. 

2 Seven fairly well-defined types may be marked out from the 
various schools that prevailed : (a) Latin grammar schools, which 
are confined to the eighteenth century, and which are mentioned in 
this connection merely because they were the schools out of which 
the academies grew, (b) Pubkc elementary tax-supported schools, 
which were called common schools, (c) Private, select and unincor- 
porated schools designate a large group of poorly defined institu- 
tions that occupied an intern;ediate place between academies and 
common schools. They were patronized by people who were too 
aristocratic for the common schools and who could not be accom- 
modated by an academy. These schools were about ten times as 
numerous as academies, {d) Monitorial high schools, an attempt to 
apply the monitorial system of instruction to secondary schools, 
were transitory and a factor in the development of a free secondary 
school. Manual labor seminaries, representing an attempt to bring 
advanced education within the reach of all, differed from the moni- 
torial high schools only in plan ; the aim of the two was the same. 
(e) Modern high schools developed in the second half of the cen- 
tury, after 1850, as the true solution of tke problem of secondary 
education for all, at least so far as it was solved at all, and replaced 
the academies as the principal secondary schools. (/) Academies 
as a rule were not supported by a tax nor controlled by a school 
board elected by the people. These were the two factors that dif- 
ferentiated them most clearly from the high schools. Academies 

•"Cf. table 21. 



64 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

dominated the field of secondary education until about 1875. (g) Col- 
leges were at all times very distinct from the other types of schools. 
The curriculums and the methods of academies show the influence 
of the colleges. 

3 Academies were not strictly secondary schools in the sense in 
which the term secondary school is now used in this country. Until 
after 1875 from one-half to three-fourths of all the pupils enrolled in 
academies were studying elementary subjects. 

4 Until about 1850, academies were considered an integrant part 
of the public educational system of the State. Later they were 
looked upon as private institutions and not a necessary part of the 
educational system. 

5 The relation of academies to other schools of the State is revealed 
most clearly in connection with the development of the modern 
high school. After elementary schools were established in accord- 
ance with the principles of democracy, the notion of secondary 
schools within the reach of all began to grow. Since academies 
did not meet that demand, other kinds of schools were advocated 
and tried. The first of these were the monitorial high school and 
the manual labor seminary, neither of which was successful. Another 
unsuccessful attempt to solve the problem was made when com- 
mon elementary schools were encouraged to offer instruction in 
advanced subjects. This brought the common schools into a mild 
conflict with academies. It was not until high schools were estab- 
lished as separate departments of union free schools that the issue 
of free secondary schools was brought clearly before the public. 
During the third quarter of the nineteenth century that issue was 
worked out, and decided in favor of high schools. While the transi- 
tion was going on, many academies were changed gradually into 
free secondary schools. But it was only after the acts of 1864 and 
1867 made instruction in high schools free that they began to develop 
rapidly and to replace academies. 

6 After high schools replaced the old-time academies a readjust- 
ment ensued. Popular secondary education was provided for by high 
schools, and a new type of academy which catered to the wealthy 
and prepared boys for college arose. By 1885 each type of school 
had found its field and the conflict between academies and high 
schools ceased. ■ : 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 65 



CHAPTER IV 
Development and Support of Incorporated Academies 

Establishment and maintenance of incorporated academies in the 
University of the State of New York, until the latter part of the 
nineteenth century, was closely related to the state aid granted them. 
The appropriations made by the State to academies had two import- 
ant effects. They encouraged the establishment of those schools in 
parts of the State that could not have otherwise maintained them, 
and gave the Regents a means of control over them that was pro- 
vided in no other way. This last effect was of special significance. 

The policy of the State in leaving secondary education to local 
and private initiative precluded direct requirements for the regula- 
tion of academies. Any community or individual could open a 
school, and conduct it independently, irrespective of established 
standards. But if an institution wished to secure the advantages 
and privileges offered by the State through the Regents, it had to 
observe the laws and ordinances relating to Regents schools. One 
of the principal advantages of being a Regents school was the oppor- 
tunity of sharing in the funds appropriated by the State ; and the 
chief penalty that the Regents could impose upon an academy for 
negligence of ordinances and laws was to deprive it of its share of 
state aid. The funds that the State contributed toward the support 
of academies formed the basis of the authority of the Regents, and 
provided a means for the growth and development of those schools 
into a well-defined system under the supervision of the Regents. 

The most important sources of revenue for academies were state 
aid and tuition fees, although a considerable part of their support 
came from voluntary contributions which included endowment funds. 
Before 1875, about three and one-half million dollars worth of prop- 
erty had been contributed to academies.^ A number of academies 
received local tax support, and a general state tax was levied one 
year only for the benefit of all secondary schools.^ 



* Proceedings of the University Convocation, 1872, p. 120. 
' Session Acts, 1872, chap. 736, 541. 



66 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

State Aid to Academies 

The obligation of the State to support education was recognized 
before the close of the Revolutionary War. In his message to the 
Legislature in 1782, Governor George Clinton said: 

" In the present respite from the more severe distresses and 
calamities of the war, I can not forbear suggesting to you a work 
which I conceive ought not to be deferred, as the business of peace, 
the promotion and encouragement of learning. Besides the general 
advantages arising to society from liberal science, as restraining 
those rude passions which lead to vice and disorder, it is the peculiar 
duty of the government of a free state, where the highest employ- 
ments are open to citizens of every rank, to endeavor by the estab- 
lishment of schools and seminaries, to diffuse that degree of litera- 
ture which is necessary to the due discharge of public trusts. You 
must be sensible that the war has occasioned a chasm in education, 
extremely injurious to the rising generation; and this affords an 
additional consideration for extending our earliest care to their 
instruction." ^ 

In the same year, and probably in response to the Governor's sug- 
gestion, the Legislature passed an act containing a clause which 
reserved parts of public lands for " gospel and school lots." * 

Following this precedent, the State provided by both special and 
general acts grants to academies, principally in the form of appro- 
priations and lands. Special legislation for the relief and support of 
particular academies was more often resorted to in the early period 
before generous permanent funds had been provided for the benefit 
of all. After the literature fund and the United States deposit fund 
had been established, special grants were not so numerous. 

The Legislature early committed itself to the policy of responding 
to appeals from academies for temporary aid, loans, cancellation of 
financial obligations, local tax support, and similar assistance, by 
passing the desired acts. Some of the land grants, which will serve 
to illustrate the nature of the many similar ones passed, were: In 
1796, a half acre which had been previously set aside for a school 
in the village of Johnstown was vested in the trustees of the lohns- 



' Messages from the Governors, v. 2, p. 183. 

■* Session Acts, 1782, chap. 22, art. VII. Cf : Cubberley. in Cyclooedia of 
Education, art., New York. 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 6/ 

town Academy to be used by them in any way they saw fit for the 
benefit of their academy.^ In 1800, the trustees of Oxford Academy 
were authorized to select one of the lots that had been reserved 
for the promotion of literature in the State, to aid them in rebuilding 
after a fire, and the commissioners of the land office were directed 
to grant the trustees a title to the lot they would select.'' A lot of 
275 acres of land in the township of Scipio was granted to the 
trustees of Cayuga Academy in 1806, in fee simple, provided the 
trustees would pay the occupants of the land for the improvements 
on itJ Lot no. 56 in the town of Potsdam was granted to the trus- 
tees of St. Lawrence Academy in 1816, but with the restrictions 
that they should not lease the lot for a term of more than 31 years, 
and that the proceeds from it should be used only for the payment 
of teachers' salaries.® In 181 8, a lot of 640 acres was granted to 
the trustees of Lowville Academy, who were instructed to use only 
the income of the property, and to apply it to the maintenance of 
instruction.^ 

Examples of the appropriation of money to particular institutions 
are: Lowville Academy in 1836 was given $2000 by the Legislature 
to be used in rebuilding, after the academy building had been 
destroyed by fire. It was provided that this amount should be col- 
lected by taxation on the county of Lewis, and returned to the State 
at 6 per cent interest.^" A simple donation of $3000, without any 
obligation on the part of the academy to repay the State, was made 
by the Legislature to Washington Academy in 181 9, for the purpose 
of rebuilding after a fire.^^ 

Many other similar special acts granting aid in some form to 
individual academies were passed, but after the middle of the nine- 
teenth century such measures more often took the form of permis- 
sive local taxation, and showed a tendency toward free secondary 
schools, or high schools. An instance of this practice is afforded 
in the case of Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary. The town of 
Gouverneur was permitted in 1869 to raise by taxation $20,000 for 
an academy building.^^ 



''Session Acts, 1796, chap. 50. 
"Session Acis, uSoo, chap. 112. 
' Session Acts, 1806, chap. 73. 
' Session Acts, 1816, chap. 148. 
" Session Acts, 1818, chap. 134. 
" Session Acts, 1836, chap. 63. 
" Session Acts, 1819, chap. 55. 
" Session Acts, 1869, chap. 291. 



68 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

However, the most substantial and consistent state aid resulted 
from general legislation and the establishment of permanent funds. 
The first general act, relating to the support of schools, mentioned 
above, to the extent that it based school support upon public lands, 
was typical of many provisions that followed. The second act of 
the kind appropriated 690 acres of each township of public lands to 
the support of schools.^^ The act of 1786 was similar to the previous 
two, and reserved one lot in each township of unappropriated land 
for the promotion of literature and one for schools and the gospel.^* 
Four years later, the Regents were authorized to rent certain public 
lands and tenements and to apply the proceeds to the support of 
academies,^^ but no immediate funds were provided until the appro- 
priation bill of 1792 was passed. By that act, £1500 was appro- 
priated each year for a period of five years, and was ordered to be 
distributed by the Regents to the academies subject to their visita- 
tion according to any plan they might adopt. ^^^ The first distribution 
was made the following year to the ten academies then incorporated. 

The next general appropriation to academies was from a sum of 
$12,500 which was raised by lotteries and distributed without 
restrictions by the Regents." Previous to 181 3, all sums granted to 
academies were appropriated or raised directly and temporarily, 
but in that year a permanent fund was set aside, the revenue from 
which was apportioned annually to academies. The law in accord- 
ance with which this fund was established directed that, except cer- 
tain lots, the unappropriated lands in the military tract and in the 
counties of Broome and Chenango, be sold, the proceeds to be 
invested by the Regents, and the income to be apportioned to incor- 
porated academies in any way the Regents might think best.^* The 
money made available in this way formed the beginning of the litera- 
ture fund, which was one of the principal sources of state aid to 
academies the rest of the century. The amount and condition of 
this fund was reported by the Regents six years after its establish- 



" Session Acts, 1784, chap. 60. 

" Session Acts, 1786, chap. 67. It is evident that there is a distinction 
made here between the terms literature and education in general. The for- 
mer is used to designate some advanced form of instruction and learning. 
This distinction was preserved in the expression " literature fund," a fund 
which was established for the benefit of secondary schools. The term litera- 
ture is further used with this significance in Assembly Journal, 1819, p. 865. 

^^ Session Acts, 1790, chap. 38. 

"Session Acts, 1792, chap. 69. 

" Session Acts, 1801, chap. 126. 

" Session Acts, 1813, chap. 187, 199. 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 69 

ment, 1819, in compliance with a resolution of the Legislature. An 
excerpt from the Regents Minutes of March 24, 1818 showed the 
literature fund to consist of the following : 

Bonds for the consideration of lands sold $21925 81 

Bonds and mortgages taken to secure payment of loans 7 75° 00 

Balance of principal in treasury 59 28 

Total $29 735 09 

And 4759 acres of land reserved for the promotion of literature." 
Exclusive of the literature fund, there was in charge of the Regents: 

579 shares in the N. Y. State Bank, at $100 each $20625'" 

100 do in the Albany Insurance Company, $100 each 10 000 

Loans to E. C. Genet $6 350 

Loans to Gillaspie 500 6 850 

Cash in the hands of the Treasurer 8 000 



Total amount $45 1 15^ 



The revenue derived from the above funds was : 

State Bank stock, at 8 per cent $1 621 20 

Albany Insurance Stock, 8 per cent 80000 

Interest on loans made by the Regents 479 50 

Interest on loans of the Literature Fund $512 50 

Interest on Bonds on account of do i 315 54 i 828 74'° 

Estimate of interest on $8000, to be loaned or funded 560 00 



$5 288 74'" 



Resolved that $4000 be distributed the present year amongst the several 
academies. 

The literature fund was further increased by an act of 1819 
directing that one-half of the quit rents received into the treasury be 
added to the Hterature fund and the income apportioned by the 
Regents to the academies as before.^^ 

The greatest increase in the literature fund was made in 1827, 
when $150,000 in the form of mortgages and bonds taken on the 
sale of lands belonging to the canal fund, was added to it.-^ 



'Assembly Jour., 1819, p. 865. 
' So printed, but evidently a mistake. 
Session Acts, 1819, chap. 298. 
' Session Acts, 1827, chap. 228. 



70 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

A clause in the constitution adopted in 1846 declared that the 
literature fund should be preserved inviolate, and the revenue from 
it should be applied to the support of academies.^^ 

The revenue derived from this fund varied somewhat at different 
periods, but was close to $18,000 annually for the greater part of 
the century. 

In 1838 another fund, composed of the excess revenue apportioned 
to the State of New York by the United States Congress, was 
made available for educational purposes; and the income from a 
part of it was contributed by the State to the support of academies. 
An act passed in 1838 granted the Regents $28,000 annually from 
the revenue of this fund, which was known as the United States 
deposit fund, to be apportioned to the incorporated academies sub- 
ject to their visitation.^* 

No further state aid to academies was provided by general law, 
except for one year by the ill-fated tax measure of 1872, until the 
increase in annual appropriations in 1887, which raised the whole 
amount distributed by the Regents to secondary schools on the basis 
of attendance and examinations to $100,000; two-fifths of which 
was produced by the literature and the United States deposit funds. 
The act making the increase contained a provision that the incorpo- 
rated academies should not receive more than $40,000 of the whole 
amount distributed in any one year.-^ This provision was useless, 
because according to the ordinances that governed the distribution 
of funds, the academies were at that time receiving a relatively small 
part of the money appropriated, and in 1890 their share of the 
$100,000 was only $17,802.-'' 

The laws governing permanent funds and appropriations made no 
distinction between incorporated academies and high schools, except 
the ineffective clause mentioned above ; so that all appropriations 
provided were shared by high schools, which developed after the 
middle of the nineteenth century. 

Iiicorponitioiis, Adinissions, and Growth of Academics 

The number of academies incorporated or received under visita- 
tion by the Regents increased slowly until the third decade of the 
nineteenth century. Prior to 1800, only 19 academies had been 



Constitution of 1846, art. IX. 
Session Acts, 1838, chap. 237. 
Session Acts, 1887, chap. 709. 
Cf. table 14. 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES "]! 

incorporated. In 1813, the year in which the Hterature fund was 
estabhshed, more academies were incorporated than in any previous 
year ; but there was no marked change in the number admitted to 
the University until 1828, the year after the Hterature fund had been 
increased by $150,000. Then within three years, 27 academies were 
received or incorporated by the Regents, as many as had been 
admitted during the twenty preceding years. ^^ In the absence of 
evidence to the contrary, it appears that the increased appropriations 
provided in 181 3 and 1827, and the more Hberal rules in regard to 
its distribution in the latter year, were the immediate causes for 
the rapid development at those particular times. Another period 

" Cf. table 13. 



72 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



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74 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

of remarkable activity in admissions to the University followed the 
law of 1838, which appropriated $28,000 annually to incorporated 
academies from the revenue of the United States deposit fund. In 
the following year (1839) 34 academies were admitted by the 
Regents, in spite of the fact that the qualifications for admission 
had been raised, requiring a building and apparatus valued at not 
less than $2500; and in the next three years, 15, 10, and 13 academies 
respectively were admitted. 

The relatively large number entering during the three years begin- 
ning with 1853 is partly accounted for by the fact that the Regents 
began to issue " provisional charters " allowing institutions that could 
not meet the requirements for full incorporation to enter for a 
limited number of years, at the expiration of which they were given 
full charters if they had developed sufficiently in the meanwhile.^* 

After the effect of this change was spent, the number admitted 
from year to year was smaller, and by 1870 or 1871 practically no 
more academies were entering the Regents system of schools. The 
rapid transition from academies to high schools and the increase in 
the number of the latter accounts for this condition. In 1871, no 
academies were incorporated or admitted, but in that year 9 high 
schools were recognized by the Regents and in 1873, 19 high schools 
were admitted, but not one academy.-^ The general taxation law 
of 1872 was probably the cause of 5 academies being incorporated 
that year. After the failure of that measure, the number of acad- 
emies admitted to the University was less than one a year until after 
the increased funds provided in 1887 were available.^" The increased 
activity in organizing academies in the last decade of the nineteenth 
century was due in a large measure to the development of a new 
type of academy. 

Table 13 

The number of academies incorporated or admitted by the Regents each 
year, excluding high schools and academies incorporated by the Legblature 
but not recognized by the Regents. Compiled from Regents Reports, espe- 
cially those of 1874, 1886, and 1900, and Regents Instructions, 1853, p. 139-50. 
Zf. table 17. 



' Regents Instructions, 1853, p. 46, 143. 

' Regents Rep't, 1886, schedule 15, p. 691-709. 

'Cf. table 13. 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 75 

NO. NO. NO. NO. 

ACADEMIES ACADEMIES ACADEMIES ACADEMIES 

YEAR ADMITTED YEAR ADMITTED YEAR ADMITTED YEAR ADMITTED 

1787 2 1816 3 184s 6 1874 I 

1788 i8l7 1846 6 1875 I 

1789 1818 I 1847 4 1876 

1790 2 1819 2 1848 4 1877 

1791 2 1820 I 1849 7 1878 I 

1792 2 1821 1850 7 1879 

1793 2 1822 I85I 6 1880 2 

1794 2 1823 1852 4 1881 I 

1795 3 1824 2 1853 12 1882 I 

1796 3 1825 I8S4 15 1883 I 

1797 I 1826 I 1855 10 1884 

1798 1827 2 1856 5 188s 2 

1799 .. 1828 II 1857 7 1886 3 

1800 1829 6 1858 4 i8'87 

1801 I 1830 9 1859 4 1888 3 

1802 .. 1831 4 i860 3 1889 6 

1803 2 1832 .. 1861 4 1890 16 

1804 I 1833 3 1862 3 1891 9 

1805 1834 1863 2 1892 8 

1806 I 183s I 1864 4 1893 4 

1807 I 1836 4 186s 2 1894 13 

1808 2 1837 1 1S66 2 189s 13 

1809 1838 6 1867 3 1896 6 

1810 1839 35 1868 5 1897 4 

1811 3 1840 15 1869 4 1898 II 

1812 .. 1841 10 1870 1 1899 3 

1813 4 1842 14 1871 .. 1900 8 

1814 1 1843 7 1872 5 

1815 2 1844 4 1873 434 

The following conclusions may be drawn from table 13: 

1 Academies were established in greatest numbers during the 
period of twenty-seven years beginning with 1828. 

2 The last decade of the eighteenth century was a period of sub- 
stantial progress, and in proportion to the population of the State 
and economic conditions, a large number of academies were admitted. 

3 The first quarter of the nineteenth century was a time of but 
little progress in the establishment of academies. 

4 For a period of twenty years following 1869, the establishment 
of academies under the Regents had nearly ceased. 

5 The last decade of the nineteenth century was marked by a new 
growth of academies, but these were a new kind in many important 
respects. 

6 From a comparison of tables 12 and 13, it is evident that the old- 
time academies were established under the Regents in largest num- 
bers in response to state aid. With each increase in appropriations, 
in 1 81 3, 1827, 1838, 1872, there is a corresponding increase in the 
number of academies entering the University. A close relation 
between support and development is here shown. 

A comparison of the amount of revenue the academies reporting 
received from year to year from the Regents with the support 



76 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

derived from other sources affords a basis for determining the extent 
to which they depended upon the State for support. Such a com- 
parison is made in tables 14 and 15. Before 1850 all state aid appro- 
priated to secondary schools was given to academies, because there 
were then no high schools. Beginning with 1850, high schools 
shared in the funds that were originally intended for academies, 
which resulted in a reduction of state aid to the latter. 

Table 14 
Revenue of incorporated academies 

This table shows the amount of revenue academies reporting to the Regents received from 
the State, the amount received from tuition, and the total amount for the year, including that 
received from all other sources than the two mentioned. The amounts received by high schools 
and academies not recognized by the Regents are not included in this table. The data are found 
chiefly in Regents Reports. 

REVENUE TOTAL REVENUE 
REVENUE RECEIVED RECEIVED 

RECEIVED FROM FROM TUITION DURING 

VE.\R REGENTS ' FEES THE YEAR 

1793 S3 750 ? ? 

1795 3650 ? ? 

1804 2 400 ? ? 

I8IO 2 200 ? ? 

I815 4010 ? ? 

1820 2577 ? ? 

182s 6220 S23 558 CS29 778 

1830 10 000 50 733 c6o 733 

183s 12 000 74 121 95 652 

1840 a35 651 181 776 236 643 

184s 038 199 200 766 261 177 

1850 038 723 237 051 306 253 

i860 34 486 341 207 465 587 

1870 24 78s 6416 314 6600 499 

1880 9382 319043 489146 

1890 17 802 557 955 I 157 869 

1900 12 849 726 899 2 056 368 

■ Does not include that apportioned for the education of teachers, and for the purchase of books 
and apparatus. 

a The whole amount apportioned these years was $40,000; the difference is due to some academies 
not reporting their share. 

b For the year 1871 by 105 academies reporting. 

c From state aid and tuition fees only. 

It will be noticed that the amount of revenue provided by the 
State increased until after 1850, then decreased until the law of 
1887 provided additional support for secondary schools. 

The extent to which academies of the early period depended upon 
state aid, and the gradual falling off of that means of support, leav- 
ing the academies almost entirely dependent upon their own means 
at the close of the nineteenth century, are seen more clearly by the 
data of table 15. 



development and support of incorporated academies "jj 

Table 15 

Proportion of revenue derived from state aid and from tuition, and the 
rates per pupil for the tw^o. Prepared from the data presented in tables 14 
and 16. 

PER CE^TT OF PER CENT OF ESTIMATED 

TOTAL REVENtlE RATE PER TOTAL REVENUE AVERAGE 

RECEIVED FROM PUPIL RECEIVED FROM ANNUAL 

YEAR THE REGENTS ENROLLED TUITION TUITION RATE 

182s 20.9 $2. 54 79 $9.63 

1830 16.4 2.32 84 11.79 

183s 12. 5 2.16 77 13.36 

1840 IS.O 3.10 76 15.84 

1845 14.6 1.52 77 7.97 

iRSO 12.6 1.40 77 8.57 

1R60 7.4 1.18 73 11.74 

1870 a\.\ 1.25 69 21. II 

1880 1.9 0.77 65 26.33 

1890 1.5 1 .16 48 36.52 

1900 0.6 1. 00 35 57 13 

Notes: The rate per pupil enrolled is found by dividing the amount apportioned by the 
Regents on the basis of attendance, or beginni.ng with 1880 on the basis of attendance and the 
number who passed the advanced examinations, by the total number enrolled for the year. 

The average annual tuition rate is found by dividing the amount received from tuition by the 
total annual enrolment. 

The Regents did not apportion the funds on the basis of total attendance after 1818, but on 
the number enrolled for four or more months of the year in advanced studies, and after 1878, 
partly on the basis of the number who had passed advanced examinations. The rate per pupil 
enrolled in advanced studies is more irregular, and does not show the relation between state aid 
and attendance, because the standards were at times abruptly raised, which decreased the number 
of advanced pupils and raised the rate without a change in the amount of money distributed. 
For this reason the rate as shown in table 15 gives a more accurate view of the relative amount 
of state aid. 

The figures in the table expressing per cents for 1825 and 1830 are not accurate, because the 
tuition receipts and state aid are considered the total revenue for those years. This difference. 
for the early period, however, is small. The revenue from other sources than these two, was in 
183s only 10 per cent and in 1840, per cent of the total. 

The estimated average annua! tuition rate before 1845 is based iipon the number of pupils 
attending at the date of report, and afterward upon the whole number enrolled for the year. 
This accounts for the apparent decrease in tuition rates in 1845. 

The data show that the per cent of total revenue derived from the 
State decHned from about 21 to less than i. Two factors con- 
tributed to this result: (i) The increase in the number of secondary 
schools and pupils by the development of high schools; (2) the 
increase in the total revenue of academies in proportion to the 
number of them and the number of pupils attending them. 

If the average amount granted by the State for each pupil 
enrolled is considered, the decrease in state aid is not so marked as 
a comparison between the amount appropriated by the State and 
the total revenue indicates. The rate per pupil was highest in 1840, 
when it reached $3.10. It then decreased until in 1880 it was but 
yy cents. At the close of the century, when academies were receiv- 
ing only 0.6 per cent of their total revenue from the State, the rate 
per pupil enrolled was $1. 

In addition to the amounts apportioned by the Regents upon the 
basis of attendance of advanced pupils and results as tested by 



a The total revenue of 1871 comparedfwith the amount of state aid received in 1870. 



78 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

examinations, academies received appropriations for books and 
apparatus. By an act passed in 1834, the Regents were authorized 
to grant $250 or less to each academy for the purchase of books 
and apparatus, provided the trustees had raised an equal amount 
for the same purpose. ^^ The Regents had made apportionments for 
the same purpose before the law of 1827 specified how the state aid 
should be apportioned, and did not make any provision for books 
and apparatus. ^^ The amount apportioned in accordance with this 
law of 1834 varied in different years, but averaged about $3000 
a year, including the amount paid to high schools.^^ 

Appropriations to academies and high schools for conducting 
teacher-training classes, amounting to about $3500 a year to acad- 
emies from 1835 to 1843, and about $15,000 from 1850 to 1886 to 
both academies and high schools, after which time it was increased, 
is shown in detail in tables 31 and 34. There is no doubt that the 
system of academies was much strengthened and increased in num- 
bers by the several thousand dollars distributed every year for the 
education of teachers and Iw the attendance of a large number 
intending to teach. 

The General Tax Lazv of iSjb 

Since academies were unable to meet the competition of free 
schools of the same grade, the plan of supporting them in part by a 
general tax was tried. Urged by the University Convocation,^* com- 
posed of the Regents, college officials and principals of academies, 
the Legislature passed a law in 1872 which levied a general tax of 
one-sixteenth of a mill on a dollar valuation for the benefit of sec- 
ondary schools under the Regents.^^ The amount appropriated by 
this act was $125,000, and with the income of $40,000 from perma- 
nent funds gave many academies new hopes for a continued exist- 
ence. But the measure was vigorously opposed by many, including 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and was not renewed the 
following year. 



" Session Ads, 1834, chap. 140. 
''Assembly jour., i8iy, p. 865. 

"The Annual Rep't of the Regents, 1871, contains a summary of all sums 
granted for hooks and apparatus after 1834. 

"Proceedings of the University Convocation, 1872, p. 115-18. 
" Session Acts, 1872, chap. 736. 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 79 

The objections to this law, as voiced by the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction were: (i) Academies, except such as were 
academic departments of union schools, were private, organized by 
the voluntary action of their proprietors and operated on their 
account and at their pleasure. The State had no authority to regu- 
late tuition charges in them, nor even to keep them in existence. 
A public tax for private interests was not justified. (2) The 
measure was unprecedented. It had not been the policy of the 
State to support secondary schools by a general tax, nor were such 
schools necessary in most localities. (3) The people did not want 
public secondary schools. This was proved by their failure to estab- 
lish them under the permissive law of 1853 ; and tax support of 
such schools should not be forced upon an unwilling people. (4) The 
300,000 children of the State who did not attend any school should 
first be " brought under instruction." (5) Academies were confined 
to certain districts, and could not benefit all. (6) Academies sup- 
ported by public tax would be a duplication of the means for much 
of the instruction already provided in common schools. (7) Acad- 
emies were managed for the profit of companies or religious bodies. 
Tax support would be merely an addition to this profit.^® 

The champions of the waning academies made a strong fight for 
their cause, and cited every possible argument to show that their 
institutions were an indispensable part of the state system of edu- 
cation. Their chief arguments were: (i) The constitution of the 
State recognized the academies as part of the educational system 
of the State, on the same basis as the common schools, by granting 
the income of the literature fund toward their support. (2) The 
laws of the State recognized academies as public institutions by 
providing for their incorporation, powers of their trustees, visita- 
tion and administration by the Regents, and by numerous special 
acts granting aid to them. (3) The State had been relieved of taxa- 
tion to the extent of $3,500,000, by voluntary contributions and 
endowments to academies, which were given for the public good, 
and used under state control for public education. None of the 
contributors derived any financial benefit from this sum, except in a 
very few cases and then only for a short time. (4) The law pro- 
viding for the incorporation of academies specified that they should 



' Rep't of Sup't of Public Instruction, 1873, p. 61- 



-66. 



8o THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

be open to teachers and students irrespective of their rehgious faith. 
There were only four academies whose boards of trustees were 
elected by religious organizations. (5) The principle of tax sup- 
port was conceded in the case of high schools, and should apply also 
to academies since they had been considered public institutions. 
(6) It was the duty of the State to train leaders to direct its affairs, 
a work that could not be done in the high schools. (7) Academies 
afforded one of the best means of training teachers for the common 
schools. The annual cost to the State of training a teacher in a 
normal school was $122.12, in an academy it was $30. (8) High 
schools could never take the place of academies as boarding schools 
and as secondary schools in sparsely populated districts. (9) The 
State was supporting elementary education more generously than 
secondary. In 1870 the State paid $6.33 for every pupil in the 
common schools, but only $1.54 a pupil to secondary schools.^^ 

But it proved to be the last stand of the old-time academy in the 
State of New York. The contention for tax support, the only hope 
of academies in competition with free schools, was lost. Academies 
were no longer to be considered an essential part of the state system 
of schools ; the parting of the ways had come. The public had 
turned irrevocably to high schools. From that time, academies 
depended chiefly on tuition fees and endowment funds for sup- 
port; while instruction in high schools was generally free to pupils, 
and supported by local taxation. This meant that academies were 
compelled to seek their patronage among people of means and among 
those desiring for their children some particular influence, condition 
or opportunity ; whether social, religious or environmental ; con- 
venient sessions, segregation of sexes, definite preparation for col- 
lege (perhaps some particular college), which high schools did not 
offer. A change in academies, in their relation to the public, in their 
means of support and their aims, resulted. When the crisis of 1872 
had passed, many of the older kind of academies passed out of exist- 
ence, or were merged in high schools, and many denominational and 
©ther special institutions sprang up. A new type of academy was 
ushered in. 



^^ Most of these arguments are found in the University Convocation Pro- 
ceedings, 1872, p. 118-23; 1873, P- 107-18. Some of them are also presented 
in Assembly Document, 1874, no. 78; Regents Rep'ts, 1874, p. xiii, xiv, 1882, 
p. xiv. 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 8l 

Support by Tuition 

The most important effect of state aid was to bring academies 
into the University, and to encourage them to maintain the high 
standard of instruction demanded by the Regents. The principal 
source of revenue of academies was tuition fees. Until the third 
quarter of the nineteenth century, over three-fourths of the total 
revenue came from this source,^^ and until about 1890 tuition formed 
not less than 50 per cent of the total revenue. The relative decrease 
in the amount received from tuition in the last decade of that cen- 
tury was caused in part by the prevalence of the greater number 
of boarding schools that was characteristic of the new type of 
academies. 

Table 15 shows that the tuition rate increased during the last 
three-fourths of the nineteenth century from $9.63 to $57.45.^® 
Since the total annual enrolment was used in calculating the average 
annual tuition rates, the figures that express those rates are too low, 
but they indicate the relative increase in the expenses of pupils attend- 
ing academies. This increase may be partly explained by a change in 
the monetary system of the country ; but after making due allow- 
ance for that factor, it is evident that the new-type academy was far 
more expensive than the old. The fact that academies were not free 
differentiated them from high schools more than any other cause, 
and was the principal reason for the decline of the former when 
high schools were made free in 1864-67. 

Number of Academies and Attendance in them at Various Periods 

The extent to which academies served their purpose of providing 
opportunity for secondary education is indicated by the number of 
them in the State and the number of pupils enrolled compared with 
the whole number of pupils of school age in the State. The relation 
between the development of academies and their means of support 
is also made more evident by a consideration of the number in exist- 
ence at various periods. 



™Cf. table 15. 

^*The apparent decrease in 1845 is explained in the notes following table 
15- 



82 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Table i6 

Number of academies and the number of pupils attending them, exclusive 
of high schools. Based on the annual reports of the Regents and the State 
Superintendent of Schools. 



NO. PUPILS 
OF SCHOOL 
NO. AG1 IN THE 

ACADEMIES INCREASE NO. INCREASE STATE TO 

REPORTING OR PUPILS OR EACH 

YEAR TO REGENTS DECREASE ATTENDING DECREASE ACADEMY 

17^7 2 79 ? 

1788 2 ISO +71 ? 

I79S.- 8 +6 451 +301 ? 

1800 3 — 5 191 — 260 ? 

1805 II +8 653 +462 ? 

1812 21 +10 I 819 +1 166 . ? 

1816 25 +4 2 381 +562 8 758 

1820 31 +6 2 230 — isi 10 944 

182s 34 +3 2 446 +216 12 096 

1830 57 +23 4303 +1857 8947 

183s 66 +9 5 S48 +1245 8158 

1840 126 +60 II 477 +5 929 4 614 

1845 153 +27 25173c +13 696c 4 597 

1850 163 +10 27 653 +2 48c 4 620 

l8S5 155 —8 36585 +8932 7833 

X86o 170 +15 29 061 — 7 524 7 741 

l86s 167 — 3 29423 +362 8376 

1870 IIS — 52 19 717 — 9 706 12 876 

1875 97 — 18 15932 — 3785 16 321 

1880 82 — IS 12 116 — 3 816 20 014 

188s 71 — II 12 265 +149 24 241 

1890 99 +28 IS 271 +3 006 18 632 

189s 131 +32 II 220 — 4051 14857 

1900 140a +9 12 7226 +1 502 II 212 

Notes: Only the number of academies reporting for the years named are included in the above 
table. Practically every year a few schools subject to the visitation of the Regents and in opera- 
tion would fail to report; and some would make partial reports, that is, report the financial condi- 
tion but not attendance. 

The number of pupils in attendance in the year 1787 was those attending at the time the com- 
mittee of the Regents visited the schools. They stated that the attendance was usually larger. 
The significance of the number reported attending after that time until 1S20 is not certain, and 
seems to have varied. For the years 1820, 1825, 1830, 1835 and 1840, the attendance numbers 
show how many pupils were in attendance at the date of support. IBeginning with 1845, the 
numbers in this colum.n indicate the whole number of pupils enrolled during the year. This 
explains the unusual increase in 1845. 

The whole number of pupils in the State of school age were those " between the ages of 5 and is " 
until 1830, when the number between 5 and 16 years of age was reported until and including the 
year 1850. After 1850, the number of school age was all those in the State between the ages of 4 
and 21. This change tended to increase the number of children of school age to each academy. 

The significant points shown by table i6 are: 

1 Academies under the Regents reached their highest develop- 
ment, measured by the number of schools and the number of pupils 
attending them, in the decade following 1855. 

2 The period of most rapid growth was from 1835 to 1845. 

3 The number of academies increased faster than the school pop- 
ulation of the State until the middle of the nineteenth century. 
About 1845, the number of academies in proportion to the school 
population was highest. 

4 Academies reporting to the Regents were most numerous about 
i860, and fewest about 1885. 



a Three of these were " special schools." 
b Including 2519 pupils in three " special schools." 

c A part of this increase is only apparent, caused by a change in the method of reporting attend- 
ance. See notes for explanation. 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 83 

5 The maximum number of pupils attending was reached about 
1855, and the lowest number occurs in 1880. 

6 The number of academies increased during the last fifteen years 
of the nineteenth century. 

Development of a New Type 

A comparison of the academies of the last quarter of the nine- 
teenth century with those that preceded shows a marked difference in 
several important characteristics. 

1 The amount of total revenue received from state aid dropped 
from 4 per cent in 1870 to less than i per cent in 1900,*° which shows 
that the financial tie between incorporated academies and the State 
was very much weaker than in any previous period. The State 
had abandoned its policy of fostering academies as a part of the 
public school system. 

2 The relative amount of revenue received from tuition fees 

decreased from 69 to 35 per cent, which was probably due to the 

increase in the number of boarding schools and the revenue received 

for board and room rent. The reports of the Regents furnish some 

evidence on this point. Prior to 1890, the amount of revenue received 

from board and room rent was not reported separately. In that 

year, 22 per cent of the total revenue was received from those 

two sources. Such a large proportion could not have been obtained 

from those sources in i860, because in that year 84 percent of the 

revenue was received from state aid and tuition, leaving but 16 per 

cent for all other sources. It is not probable that the amount 

received from board and room rent in 1870 was as much as 22 per 

cent, because the state aid and tuition that year amounted to 73 per 

cent, leaving but 27 per cent for all other sources. In 1890, 47 

academies reporting to the Regents were boarding schools, in 1895 

there were 50, and in 1900, 61. It seems, however, that the relative 

number of boarding schools decreased between 1890 and 1900. In 

the latter year 16 per cent of the revenue was obtained from board 

and room rent, and 44 per cent of the academies reported amounts 

received from those sources, as compared with 22 and 48 per cent 

respectively for the former year. 

3 The tuition rate for pupils attending academies increased from 

Ti. table i;. 



84 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

$21 to $57. It appears from this that there was an appeal in the 
later period to the wealthier classes. 

4 Most of the academies incorporated before 1875 had passed out 
of existence before the close of the century, and a new group 
entered the University. Of the 137 regular academies reporting to 
the Regents in 1900, only 38, or 27.7 per cent had reported in 1875 ; 
and 59.1 per cent of the 137 had been incorporated or recognized 
after 1890.*^ Such changes were not characteristic of the earlier 
period. Of the 97 academies reporting in 1875, only 10 per cent had 
been incorporated in the preceding decade.*^ There had been periods 
when a large number of schools were admitted to the University in 
a few years,** but not with a corresponding dropping out of those 
already in. 

5 Many of the more recently established academies were denom- 
inational or sectarian schools, whereas very few of the older 
academies were under denominational control. The Regents, March 
2, 1874, according to a request from the Assembly, made a special 
report on certain matters affecting academies, in which they stated : 
" There are two academies whose trustees are elected by denomina- 
tional bodies.*^ The law of 1873, specifying that no academy under 
denominational control should be granted a share of the state aid, 
made it necessary to decide the number which should be deprived 
of a share of the appropriation. It was accordingly stated that four 
academies were under trustees elected by denominational bodies, and 
were to be considered sectarian.*" This number was about 4 per 
cent of all academies then reporting. 

The Constitution adopted in 1893 made it necessary for the 
Regents again to specify what academies were under denominational 
control, as there was a clause preventing all such schools from 
receiving State aid. At that time 50 institutions, 21 Protestant and 
29 Roman Catholic, were classed as denominational schools, and the 
other 75 academies reporting as undenominational.*^ Within twenty 
years there had been a change of from 2 or 4 denominational schools 
to 50, or of from 2 or 4 per cent to 40 per cent. 



"Regents Rep'ts, 1876, p. 358-74; 1900, p. 1008, 1022, 1036, 1050. 

" Regents Rep't, 1886, p. 691-709. 

" Cf . table 13. 

*^ Assembly Document, 1874, no. 78, p. 5. 

"^ University Convocation Proceedings, 1873, p. 118. 

^' Regents Rep't, 1894, p. r277. 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 85 

It is evident that the old-time academy, cherished as a community 
enterprise and fostered by the State, had nearly passed out of exist- 
ence by the close of the nineteenth century. As a means of public 
secondary education, high schools had taken its place; while acade- 
mies of a new kind were meeting special demands not provided for 
by high schools. 

Data Concerning Individual Academies 

A complete explanation of the academy system in the State of 
New York during the nineteenth century would require a statement 
of the more significant facts concerning each academy, considered 
independently. A correct impression of the situation can not be 
gained from a general description, because comparatively few 
assertions that will apply to every institution or even to a majority 
of them can be made about the system as a whole. Diversity in 
organization, in curriculums, method of instruction, administration, 
purpose, means of support, relation to the State and community, 
and in nearly every respect, was a characteristic of academies. The 
laws of the State and the ordinances of the Regents, which produced 
some degree of uniformity, were often not specific, but defined 
minimum standards and prescribed only certain features of the 
system; so academies were left free to develop in various ways. 
Moreover, the Legislature increased the irregularity of the system 
by granting special privileges to certain academies. Nor were 
academies restricted much by academic or social traditions. They 
were a new kind of institution in a new nation, exercising a spirit of 
adventure, experimentation and discovery. 

The advent of high schools in the second half of the century, and 
the gradual fusion of academies with them produced a confusion of 
names and almost every possible variety of school between the typi- 
cal academy and the typical high school. The condition of an indi- 
vidual school in various years can be determined, but the whole 
system can not be accurately represented in general terms. 

It is not the purpose to present here, however, a detailed account 
of every academy subject to the visitation of the Regents. Brief 
data concerning each academy that at any time reported to the 
Regents, such as is included in the catalog of names, locations and 
important dates, so far as determined, contained in table 17, will 
afford a more detailed view of the situation than is furnished by the 
preceding description. 



86 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Table 17 

A catalog of academies at any time before the twentieth century reporting 
to the Regents, with some of the important dates for each 



(For explanations and notes see end of table.) 



NAME LOCATION 

Academy at Little Falls Little Falls . . . 

Academy of Dutchess County Poughkeepsie . 

Academy of Mount St Vin- New York .... 

cent 
Academy of Notre Dame .... Albany 



Academy of the Holy Names. 
Adams Collegiate Institute. . 



Albany. 
Adams. 



Addison Academy Addison . . 

Adelphi Academy of Brook- Brooklyn. 
lyn 

Albany Academy Albany. . . 

Albany Female Academy. . . . Albany. . . 

Albany Female Seminary. . . . Albany. . . 

Albion Academy Albion . . . 

Alexander Classical School . . Alexander. 



Alfred Academy Alfred (Center) 

All Saints Academy (All New York 

Saints Academic School of 

Manhattan) 

Almond Academy Almond 

A. M. Chesbrough Seminary. North Chili. . . . 

Amenia Seminary Amenia 

Ames Academy Ames 



Amsterdam Academy Amsterdam . 

Amsterdam Female Seminary Amsterdam. 
Andes Collegiate Institute . . . Andes 



Angelica Academy Angelica. 

Antwerp Liberal Literary Antwerp. 
Institute 



Arcade Academy Arcade 

Argyle Academy Argyle 

Astoria Institute Astoria 

Auburn Academy Auburn 

Auburn Female Serhinary. . . . Auburn 

Augusta Academy Augusta 

Augustinian Institute Carthage. . . . 

Aurora Academy East Aurora . 

Avon Academy Avon 

Ball Seminary Hoosic Falls . 



Ballston Academy Ballston. 

Batavia Female Academy. . . . Batavia . 
Bedford Female Institute... Bedford. 



DATE OF 




INCOR- 






PORATION DATE LAST 


OR 


REPORTED 


AD.MISSION UNDER 




BY 


NAME 




REGENTS 


GIVEN 


ADDITIONAL DATA 


1844 


1873 


Merged in high schoo ' 
in 1873 


1792 


1868 


Merged in high school 
in 1874 


1890 


Reporting 




1896 


1898 




I88Q-QI 


Reporting 




T899 


Reportinsr 




i85S 


1899 


Called Hungerford Col- 
legiate Institute from 
1864 to 1884 


1849 


1869 


Merged in high school 
in 1869 


1869 


Reporting 




1813 


Reporting 




1828 


Reporting 




1828 


1866 




1841 


1877 


Merged in high school 



in 1876 

1839 1843 Name changed to Gene- 

see and Wyoming Sem- 
inary in 184s 

1843 Reporting Became a part of "Alfred 

University" in 1857 
1898 Reporting 



Changed 


Reporting 


Name changed from 
Chili Seminary in 1885 


1836 


1881 


Reincorporated in 1874 


1839 


187s 


Merged in high school 
in 1872 


Changed 


1894 


Name changed from 
Amsterdam Female 
Seminary in i86s 


1841 


i86s 


Name changed to 
Amsterdam Academy 
in 1865 


1862 


1893 


Merged in high school 
in 1893 (?) 


1859 


1869 




1856 


1870 


Name changed to Black 
River Conference 
Seminary in 1870 


1862 


1870 


Merged in high school 
in 1867 


1841 


1892 


Merged in high school 
in 1892 (?) 


1844 


1848 




iSrs 


1866 


Merged in high school 
in 1866 


1840 


1849 




1842 


1877 




189s 


Reporting 




1839 


1883 


Merged in high school 
in 1884 


1 84 1 


1844 


Merged in high school 
in 1881 


1843 


1862 


Merged in high school 
in 1863 


180S 


1824 


Burned in 1866 


1839 


1842 




18SS 




Did not report to Reg- 



ents; closed in 1880 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 87 



NAME 
Berkeley Institute for Young 
Ladies 

Bethany Academy 

Binghamton Academy 

Black River Conference Sem- 
inary 



Black River Literary and 
Religious Institute 

Blooming Grove Academy. . . 

Bridgehampton Literary and 
Commercial Institute 

Bridgewater Academy 

Brockport Collegiate Insti- 
tute 

Brookfield Academy 



DATE OF 
INCOR- 
PORATION DATE LAST 

OR REPORTED 
ADMISSION UNDER 

BY NAME 

LOCATION REGENTS GIVEN 

Brooklyn 1 886 Reporting 

Bethany 1842 1863 

Binghamton... 1842 1872 

Antwerp Changed 1873 



ADDITIONAL DATA 



Brooklyn Collegiate 
Polytechnic Institute 



and 



Brooklyn Female Academy . . 

Brown ville Female Seminary 

Buffalo Academy of the 

Sacred Heart 
Buffalo Female Academy. . . . 



Buffalo Literary and Scien- 
tific Academy 
Buffalo Seminary 



Cambridge Washington Acad- 
emy 
Canajoharie Academy 



Canandaigua Academy. 

Canisteo Academy 

Canton Academy 



Closed about 1872 
Merged in high school 

in 1861 
Name changed to North- 
ern New York Con- 
ference Seminary in 
1873 (see Antwerp 
Liberal Literary In- 
stitute) 
Watertown . . . . 1838 1846 Name changed to Jef- 

ferson County Insti- 
tute in 1846 
Blooming 1811 1824 A private school from 

Grove 1869 to 1874 

Bridgehampton 1875 Reporting 

Bridgewater... 1828 1837 

Brockport 1842 1867 Merged in "Brockport 

Normal School" in 1867 

Brookfield 1847 1877 Merged in high school 

in 1880 

Brooklyn 1857 1889 Authorized to confer de- 

grees in 1869. 

Name changed to 
Polytechnic Institute 
of Brooklyn; academic 
department in 1889 

Brooklyn 1847 1852 Name changed to Pack- 

er Collegiate Institute 
in 1853 

Brownville 1849-60 Did not report to Regents 

Buffalo 1899 Reporting 

Buffalo 1851 1887 Name changed to Buf- 

falo Seminary in 
1888 (?) 

Buffalo 1830 184s 

Buffalo Changed Reporting Name changed from Buf- 
falo Female Academy 
in 1888 (?) 

Cambridge.... 1815 1873 Merged in high school 

in 1873 

Canajoharie... 1828 1868 Merged in high school 

in 1876 



Canandaigua. 
Canisteo .... 
Canton 



Carlisle Seminary Carlisle . 



Cary Collegiate Seminary. . . . Oakfield 

Cascadilla School Ithaca 

Cathedral Academy Albany 

Cathedral School of St Mary. Garden City. 

Cathedral School of St Paul.. Garden City. 

Catskill Academy Catskill 

Cayuga Academy Aurora 



Cayuga Lake Academy Aurora . 



1 795 
1868 
1840 

1853 

184s 
1893 
1892 
1890 
1890 
1804 
1801 



1896 
1896 
1868 



Merged in high school 
in 1869 
Did not report to Regents; closed 

in 185s 
Reporting 
Reporting 
Reporting 



1822 
i860 



Changed 



Cazenovia Seminary Cazenovia. 



Central New York Confer- 
ence Seminary 



Cazenovia Changed 



Chamberlain Institute Randolph Changed Reporting 



Name changed to Cayuga 
Lake Academy in i860 

Name changed from 
Cayuga Academy in 
i860 

Changed Reporting Name changed from 
Central New York 
Conference Seminary 
in 1874 

Name changed from 
Oneida Conference 

Seminary in 1870 (see 
Cazenovia Seminary) 

Name changed from 
Randolph Academy 
Association in 1866 



1874 



88 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



NAME 

Champlain Academy 

Champlain Institute 

Charbonneau Institute 

Chautauqua Collegiate In- 
stitute 
Cherry Valley Academy 

Chester Academy 

Chili Seminary 

Christian Brothers Academy 
of Albany 

Cincinnatus Academy 

Clarence Academy 

Clarkson Academy 

Claverack Academy 



Claverack Academy and Hud- 
son River Institute 



Clermont Academy 

Clifton Springs Female Semi- 
nary 

Clinton Academy 

Clinton Grammar School .... 

Clinton Liberal Institute .... 

Clinton Seminary 

Clover Street Seminary 

Colgate Academy 

Columbia Academy 

Conrad Poppenhusen Associa- 
tion 

Cook Academy 

Cooperstown Seminary and 

Female Collegiate Institute 

Cortland Academy 

Cortland ville Academy 

Coxsackie Academy 

Dansville Seminary 

Dean Academy 

De Lancey Institute 

De Lancey School 

Delaware Academy 

Delaware Literary Institute.. 
Deposit Academy 

De Ruyter Institute 

De Veaux School 

Drew Seminary for Young 
Women 



D.\TE OF 

INCOR- 
PORATION DATE LAST 
OR REPORTED 
ADMISSION UNDER 
BY NAME 
LOCATION REGENTS GIVEN 

Champlain.... 1842 1872 

Port Henry. . . . 1894 Reporting 

Rouse Point .. . 1895 Reporting 

Stockton 1857 Not organized 

Cherry Valley. . 1796 

Chester 1844 

North Chili.... 1869 

Albany 1869 

Cincinnatus.. . . 1857 

Clarence 1854 

Clarkson 1835 

Claverack 1839 

Claverack Changed 

Clermont 1839 

Clifton Springs. 1890 

East Hampton. 1787 

Clinton 1828 

Clinton (Fort 1836 Reporting 

Plain) 
Clinton (Whites- 1842 

boro) 

Brighton 1849 

Hamilton Changed 



ADDITIONAL DATA 

Merged in high schoo' 
in 1873 



189s Closed from 1866 to 

1881 
1872 Merged in high school 

in 1869 
1885 Name changed to A. M. 

Chesbrough Seminary 

in 188s 
Reporting 



1896 
1870 



1856 
1854 



1895 



1839 



1893 



1844 



Merged in high school in 
1869 

Name changed to Clav- 
erack Academy and 
Hudson River Insti- 
tute in 1854 

Name changed from 
Claverack Academy in 
1854. Authorized to 
confer degrees in 1869. 
Name changed to Hud- 
son River Institute in 
1895 

Reported one year only 



i8S7 
Reporting 



Kinderhook 1797 

College Point . . 1890 

Havanna (Mon- 1872 

tour Falls) 

Cooperstown. . . 1854 

Homer 1819 

Cortland ville. . . 1843 

Coxsackie 1839 

Dansville 1853-60 

Binghamton . . . 1872 

Westmoreland.. 1842 

Geneva 1888 

Delhi 1820 

Franklin 1839 

Deposit 1867 

De Ruyter 1838 

Niagara Falls . . 1890 

Carmel 1895 



180S 
1893 



Reporting 



Closed about 1881 

Houghton Seminary 

branched off from this 
school in 1881-82 

Removed to Fort Plain in 
1879 

Name changed to Whites - 
town Seminary in 1844 

Sold in 1858 

Name changed from 
Grammar School of 
Madison University in 
1873 

Closed in 1 80s 

Also classed as a special 
institution and re- 
ported in other years 



Sold in 1859 



Did not report 
to Regents 

1873 Merged in high school in 
1873 
Merged in " Cortland 
Norma School " in 



1869 
187s 



1883 



Merged in high school in 
1880. Charter renewed 
in 1863 

Merged in high school in 



Did not report to Regents 
1847 Sold in 1852 

Reporting 

Reporting 

Reporting 
187s 



1871 



Reporting 
Reporting 



Merged in high school in 

1876 
Reincorporated in 1847; 

merged in high school 

in 1877 

Department of a college 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 89 



NAME 

Dundee Academy 

Dundee Preparatory School . . 

D'Youville Academy 

East Bloomfield Academy. . . . 
East Genesee Conference 
Seminary 

East Hamburg Friends Insti- 
tute 
East Springfield Academy . . . 
Ellenville High School 

Ellington Academy 

Elmira Academy 

Elmira Collegiate Seminary.. 

Erasmus Hall 

Essex County Academy 

Evans Academy 

Fairfield Academy 

Fairfield Seminary 

Falley Seminary 

Falley Seminary of Black 
River Conference 

Farmers' Hall 

Fayetteville Academy 

Fayetteville Seminary 

Female Academy of the 

Sacred Heart 
Female Academy of the 

Sacred Heart 

Female Academy of the 

Sacred Heart 

Female Institute of Visitation. 

Florence Institute 

Flushing Institute 

Fonda Academy 

Fort Covington Academy 

Fort Edward Collegiate Insti- 
tute 

Fort Plain Seminary and Fe- 
male Collegiate Institute 
Franklin Academy 

Franklin Academy 

Franklin School of Buffalo . . . 
Fredonia Academy 

Friends' Academy 

Friends' Academy 

Friendship Academy 



DATE OF 
INCOR- 
PORATION DATE LAST 
OR REPORTED 

ADMISSION LrNDER 
BY NAME 

LOCATION REGENTS GIVEN 

Dundee i8s5 1867 

Dundee 1882-89 1895 

Plattsburg 1892-96 Reporting 

East Bloomfield 1840 1876 

Ovid Changed 1872 

East Hamburg. 1872 1877 

East Springfield 1880-82 Reporting 

Ellenville 1856 

Ellington 1853 1867 

Elmira 1840 1866 

Elmira 1853 

Flatbush 1787 1895 

Westport 1838 1843 

Peterboro Changed 1896 

Fairfield 1803 1882 

Fairfield Changed Reporting 

Fulton Changed 1885 

Fulton Changed 1857 

Goshen 1790 1866 

Fayetteville 1839 1854 

Fayetteville 1857 .... 

Kenwood 1891 Reporting 

New York 1891 Reporting 

Rochester 1891 Reporting 

Brooklyn 1891 Reporting 

Mechanicville. . 1889 1889 

Flushing 1890 Reporting 

Fonda 184s 1848 

Fort Covington. 1831 1875 

Fort Edward.. . Changed Reporting 

Fort Plain i8S3-5S 1879 

Malone 1831 1895 

Prattsburg 1824 1877 

Buffalo 1894-99 Reporting 

Fredonia 1830 1867 

Locust Valley. . 1898 Reporting 

Union Springs.. i860 1876 

Friendship.... 1849 1894 



ADDITIONAL DATA 



Name changed from Ovid 
Academy in 1864; 
merged in high school 
in 1873 



Did not report to 
Regents; merged in 
" Ulster Female Semi- 
nary " in 1867 

Merged in high school in 
1872 

Merged in high school in 
1859 

Did not report to 
Regents; merged in 
" Elmira Female Col- 
lege " in 185s 

Merged in high school in 
1896 

Corporation dissolved in 
1867 

Name changed from 
Peterboro Academy in 
1864 

Name changed to Fair- 
field Seminary in 1883 

Name changed from 
Falley Seminary of 
Black River Confer- 
ence in 1857 

Name changed from 
Fulton Academy in 
1849 (see Falley Semi- 
nary) 

Merged in high school in 
1883 (?) 

Did not report to 
Regents; merged in 
high school in 1883 



Reported one year only 



Merged in high school in 
1853 
Name changed from 
Washington County 
Seminary and Colle- 
giate Institute in 1865 



Merged in high school in 

1867 
Merged in high school in 

1870 

Merged in " Fredonia 
Normal School " in 
1866 

Name changed to Oak- 
wood Seminary in 1876 



90 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



NAME 

Fulton Academy . 



Fulton Female Seminary .... 

Gaines Academy 

Galway Academy 

Galway Academy 

Genesee Conference Seminary 

Genesee and Wyoming Semi- 
nary 

Genesee Valley Seminary .... 
Genesee Wesleyan Seminary . 
Geneseo Academy 

Geneva Academy 

Genoa Academy 

German American School of 
Morrisania 

Gjrman Martin Luther Semi- 
nary (German Martin 
Luther College) 

Gitbertsville Academy, and 
Collegiate Institute 

Glens Falls Academy 

Gloversville Union Seminary 
(Gloversville Union Acad- 
emy) 

Gouverneur High School 



Gouverneur Wesleyan Semi- 
nary 



Gouverneur Seminary 

Grammar School of Columbia 

College 
Grammar School of Madison 

University 
Grammar School of New York 

Central College 
Grammar School of the Uni- 
versity o'' the City of New 

York 

Granville Academy 

Greenbush and Schodack 

Academy 

Greenville Academy 

GrifSth Institute (Griffith 

Academy) 

Groton Academy 

Hackley School 

Half moon Academy 

Hamilton Academy 

Hamilton Female Seminary 
Hamilton Oneida Academy. . 

Hartford Academy 

Hartwick Seminary 

Hebrew Technical School 
(Hebrew Technical Insti- 
tute) 



DATE OF 

INCOR- 
PORATION DATE LAST 
OR REPORTED 
ADMISSION UNDER 
BY NAME 
LOC.\TION REGENTS GIVEN ADDITIONAL DATA 

Fulton Changed 1848 Name changed from 

Fulton Female Semi- 
nary in 1842 (see Pal- 
ley Seminary of Black 
River Conference) 

Fulton 1839 1842 Name changed to Ful- 

ton Academy in 1842 

Gaines 1830 1842 Sold in 1844 

Galway 1839 1863 

Galway 1845 .... Did not report to Regents 

Pike 1856 1859 Name changed to Pike 

Seminary in 1859 

Alexander Changed 1886 Name changed from 

Alexander Classical 
School in 1845 

Belfast 1857-62 1877 

Lima 1836 Reporting 

Geneseo Changed 1875 Name changed from 

Livingston County 

High School Associa- 
tion in 1846 

Geneva 1813 1824 Merged in " Geneva Col- 

lege" in 1824 

Genoa 1847 1852 

Morrisania 1865 .... Did not report to 

Regents 

Buffalo i8p3 1893 Reported one year only 

as an academy. Clas- 
sed as a special school 
Gilbertsville . . . 1841 1893 

Glens Falls ... . 1842 Reporting 

Gloversville.... 1855 186S Merged in high school in 

1868 

Gouverneur.... 1829 1840 Name changed to Gouv- 

erneur Wesleyan Semi- 
nary in 1840 

Gouverneur.... Changed 1889 Name changed to Gouv- 

erneur Seminary in 
1889 (see Gouverneur 
High School) 

Gouverneur.... Changed 1894 Merged in high school in 

189s 

New York 1838 1858 Became private 

Hamilton 1853 1873 Name changed to Col- 

gate Academy in 1873 
McGrawville. . . 1858 1858 Reported one year only 

New York 1838 1853 

Granville 1830 1864 Sold in 1870 

East Greenbush 1841 1853 

Greenville 18 16 1898 

Springville Changed 1877 Name changed from 

Springvilli; Academy 

1866; merged in high 

school in 1876 
Groton 1839 1872 Merged in high school in 

1872 

Tarry town 1900 Reported in 

1901 

Halfmoon 1851 1876 

Hamilton 1824 1859 Merged in high school in 

1869 

Hamilton 1856 1863 

Kirkland i793 1812 Merged in Hamilton 

College in 18 12 
South Hartford 1866 1876 

Hartwick 1816 Reporting 

New York 1894 1898 Also classed as a special 

school 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 91 







DATE OF 








INCOR- 








PORATION 


DATE LAST 






OR 


REPORTED 






ADMISSION 


UNDER 






BY 


NAME 


NAME 


LOCATION 


REGENTS 


GIVEN 


bedding Literary Institute . . 


Ashland 


1854 





Hempstead Institute 

Hempstead Seminary 

Herkimer Academy (Her- 
kimer County Academy) 

Hobart Hall 

Hogansburgh Academy 

Holley Academy 

Holy Angels, Academic De- 
partment 

Holy Angels Academy 

Holy Cross Academic School. 

Holy Cross Academy of Man- 
hattan 

Houghton Seminary 

Hubbardsville Academy 

Hudson Academy 

Hudson River Institute 



Hungerford Collegiate Insti- 
tute 
Ingham Collegiate Institute. . 



Ingham University, Academic 
Department 

Institute of Sisters of St 

Joseph 
Ithaca Academy 



Hempstead.... 1858 .... 

Hempstead.... 1839 1847 

Herkimer 1840 1847 

Holland Patent 18.40 1857 

Hogansburgh.. 1889 Reporting 

Holley 1850 

Buffalo 1898 Reporting 

Buffalo 1894 Reporting 

Albany 1897 Reporting 

New York 1898 Reporting 

Clinton Changed Reporting 



Hubbard's Cor- 
ners 

Hudson 

Claverack 



Adams. . 
Le Roy . 



1850 



ADDITIONAL DATA 

Did not report to Re- 
gents; merged in 
" Ashland Collegiate 
Institute" about 1858 

Did not report to Regents 



868 Merged in high school in 



Organized as a separate 
department of Clinton 
Grammar School in 
1881-82 



I8S3 



1807 1888 

Change! Reporting 



Le Roy. 

Buffalo. 



Changed 
I8S3 

Changed 



i8S7 



Ives Seminary. 



1892 Reporting 



Jamestown Academy 

Jane Gray School 

Jefferson Academy. 

Jefferson County Institute. . . 



Johnstown Academy .... 

Jonesville Academy 

Jordan Academy 

Kceseville Academy 

Keuka Institute 

Kinderhook Academy. . . 
Kingsborough Academy . 

Kingston Academy 

Knoxville Academy 

Lancaster Academy 

Lansingburg Academy. . 

La Salle Academy 

La Salle Institute , 



Ithaca 


1826 


187s 


Antwerp 


Changed 


Reporting 


Jamestown . . . 


1839 


1865 


Mt Morris . . . . 

Jefferson 

Watertown . . . 


1868 
1833 

Changed 


187s 
1850 
1865 



Name changed from 
Claverack Academy 
and Hudson River In- 
stitute in 1805 

(See Adams Collegiate 
Institute) 

Name changed to " Ing- 
ham University, Ac- 
ademic Department " 
in i8.s7 

Name changed from Ing- 
ham Collegiate Insti- 
tute in 1857 



Merged in high school in 

1884 
Name changed from 

Northern New York 

Conference Seminary 

in 1874 
Merged in high school in 

1866 



Name changed from 
Black River Literary 
and Religious Institute 
in 1846; merged in high 
school in 1865 
Merged in high school in 

1870 
Corporation dissolved in 

1871 
Merged in high school in 

1867 
Merged in high school in 
1873 



Johnstown 1794 1869 

Jonesville 1850 1 869 

Jordan 1842 1875 

Keeseville 1839 1872 

Keuka Park 1890 Reporting 
(Keuka Col- 
lege) 

Kinderhook 1828 1895 

Kingsborough.. 1839 1858 Merged in common 

school in 1863 

Kingston 1795 1880 Merged in high school in 

1864 

Knox 1842 1868 

Lancaster 1846 1846 

Lansingburg... 1796 Reporting 

New York 1896 Reporting 

Troy 1880-91 Reporting 



Reported one year only 



92 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



DATE OF 
INCOR- 
PORATION DATE LAST 



NAME 

Laurel Bank Seminary . 



LOCATION 

Deposit . . . . 



OR 
ADMISSION 



REGENTS 
i8S4 



Lawrenceville Academy 

Le Roy Academic Institute . . 

Le Roy Female Seminary. . . . 

Lewiston High School Acad- 
emy 

Liberty Normal Institute. . . . 

Livingston County High 
School (Livingston County 
High School Association) 

Lowville Academy 

McAuIey Academic School. . . 

Macedon Academy 



Manlius Academy . . 
Marathon Academy. 



Lawrenceville . 

Le Roy 

Le Roy 

Lewiston 



Liberty . 
Geneseo. 



Lowville 

Keeseville 

Macedon (Mac- 
edon Center) 
Manlius 

Marathon 



Marion Collegiate Institute . . 
Marshall Seminary of Easton. 

Martin Institute 

Mayville Academy 



Marion 

Easton 

Martinsburg. 
Mayville. . . . 



Mechanicville Academy . 

Mendon Academy 

Mexico Academy 



Mechanicville. 

Mendon 

Mexico 



Middlebury Academy Wyoming. 



Millville Academy. 
Monroe Academy. . 



Millville.. 
Henrietta. 



Monroe Academy Henrietta. 



Montgomery Academy. 
Monticello Academy. . . 
Moravia Institute 



Montgomery. 
Monticello. . . 
Moravia 



Moriah Academy Moriah . 



Mount Beacon Academy 
(Mount Beacon Academic 
Association) 

Mount Pleasant Academy . . 



Mount St Mary's Academy. . 
Munro Academy 



F i s h k i 1 1 -on- 
Hudson 

Mount Pleasant 
(Sing Sing) 
(Ossining) 

Newburgh 

Elbridge 



REPORTED 
UNDER 

NAME 
GIVEN 



1864 
I84I 
1828 

1849 
1829 



ADDITIONAL DATA 

Did not report 
Regents 



1851 

1848 Closed about 1875 



188s 
1845 



1808 Reporting 

)i-96 Reporting 

184s Reporting 

1839 1869 



1866 



1869 



1855-58 Reporting 
1863 189s 

1870 187s 

1839 1864 



1839 

Changed 



1819 

1841 
1827 

1843 

1791 
1852 
1840 

1841 



1895 



1856 
1840 



1881 
1881 
1869 



Name changed to Gen- 
eseo Academy in 1846 



Merged in high school in 

1870 
Merged in high school in 

1879 



Merged in high school in 
1868 



Name changed from 
Rensselaer Oswego 

Academy in 1845 

Merged in high school in 



Probably merged with 

the following 
Merged in high school in 

1871 



Merged in high school in 
1868 

Name changed to Sher- 
man Academy in 1873 



1827 Reporting 



1888 Reporting 
1839 185s 



Munro Collegiate Institute . . Elbridge Changed Reporting 



Naples Academy Naples 

Nassau Academy Nassau 

Nazareth Academy Rochester 

Newark Valley Academy. . . . Newark Valley. 

New Berlin Academy New Berlin . . . . 

Newburgh Academy Newburgh 



1859-62 



Name changed to Mun- 
ro Collegiate Institute 
in 1855 
Name changed from 
Munro Academy in 
i8S5 
1880 Merged in high school in 



New Paltz Academy New Paltz. . . . 

New York Central Academy. McGrawville. . 

New York Conference Semi- Charlotteville. 
nary 



New York Conference Sem- Charlotteville. 
inary and Collegiate In- 
stitute 



1868 


1875 




I89I 


Reporting 




1889 


1891 


Merged in high school in 
1891 


1844 


1881 


Merged in high school in 

1881 
Merged in high school in 


1806 


1852 






1853. At first a com- 






mon school 


1 8,^6 


188s 


Reincorporated in 1845 


1864 


1867 


Merged in high school in 



1850 



Changed 



187s 



Name changed to New 
York Conference Semi- 
nary and Collegiate In- 
stitute in 1867 

Name changed from New 
York Conference Semi- 
nary in 1867 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 93 



NAME 

New York Military Academy 

New York Preparatory School 
North Granville Female Sem- 
inary 

North Granville Ladies' Sem- 
inary 

North Granville Seminary . . . 



North Hebron Institute 

North Salem Academy 

Northern New York Confer- 
ence Seminary 

Norwich Academy 

Nunda Academy 

Nunda Literary Institute. . . . 
Oakwood Seminary 

Ogdensburg Academy 

Clean Academy Association . . 
Clean Academy 



Oneida Conference Seminary. 



Oneida Institute of Science 
and Industry 

Oneida Seminary 

Onondaga Academy 

Ontario Female Seminary. . . . 

Orleans Academy 

Otsego Academy 

Ovid Academy 

Owego Academy 

Oxford Academy 

Oyster Bay Academy 

Packer Collegiate Institute. . . 

Palmyra High School 

Park Academy 

Parma Institute 

Peekskill Academy (Peekskill 

Military Academy) 
Penfield Seminary 

Perry Academy 

Perry Center Institute 

Peterboro Academy 

Phipps Union Seminary 

Piermont Academy 



LOCATION 

Cornwall - on ■ 

Hudson 
New York . . . . 



North Granville 



North Granville 



DATE OF 

INCOR- 
POHATION DATE LAST 

OR REPORTED 

ADMISSION UNDER 

BY NAME 

REGENTS GIVEN 

1890-93 Reporting 

1894-96 189s 



I8S4 



North Granville Changed 



187s 



1893 



North Hebron.. 1854 1868 

North Salem. . . 1790 1862 

Antwerp Changed 1874 

Norwich 1843 187s 

Nunda 1868 1876 

Nunda 1845 1862 

Union Springs.. Changed Reporting 



Ogdensburg 1839 1857 

Olean 1853 1853 

Clean Changed 1868 

Cazenovia Changed 1870 



Whitesboro . . . . 1829 

Oneida 1857-59 

Onondaga Val- 18 13 

ley 

Canandaigua. . . 1828 

Orleans 1851 

Cooperstown ... 1 796 

Ovid 1830 

Owego 182S 

Oxford 1794 

Oyster Bay. .. . 1803 

Brooklyn Changed 

Palmyra 1833 

Prohibition Pk., 1893 
S. I. 

Parma 1859 

Peekskill 1839 

Penfield 1857 

Perry 1854 

Perry Center. . . 1843 

Peterboro 1853 

Albion 1840 

Piermont 1842 



1843 

1872 
1890 



ADDITIONAL DATA 



Merged in North Gran- 
ville Ladies' Seminary 
in 1862 

Name changed to North 
Granville Seminary in 
187s 

Name changed from 
North Granville Ladies' 
Seminary in 1875 

Sold in 1884 

Name changed to Ives 
Seminary in 1874 

(See Black River Con- 
ference Seminary) 

Merged in high school in 
1873 

Merged in high school in 
1876 

Name changed from 
Friends' Academy 

(Union Springs) in 
1876 

Merged in high school in 
1857 

Name changed to Olean 
Academy in 1853 

Name changed from 
Olean Association in 
1853; merged in high 
school in 1868 

Name changed from Sem- 
inary of the Genesee 
and Oneida Con- 
ferences in 1835 (see 
Central New York 
Conference Seminary) 

Closed in 1844 



Merged in high school in 
1866 

187s Sold in 1878 
Did not report to Regents 

1808 Burned in 1809 

1863 Name changed to East 
Genesee Conference 
Seminary in 1864 

1869 Merged in high school in 
1869 

1896 

183s Merged in common 
school in 1835 
Reporting Name changed from 
Brooklyn Female Sem- 
inary in 1853 

1837 Closed in 1848 

1894 

1875 
Reporting 



187s 



184s 
1864 



Sold to common school 

in 1 87 1 
Merged in high school 

in 1874 (?) 



Name changed to Evans 
Academy m 1864 
187s 
Did not report to Regents 



94 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



NAME 
Pike Seminary . . . 



Plattsburg Academy 

Polytechnic Institute of 
Brooklyn, Academic De- 
partment 

Pompey Academy 

Poughkeepsie Collegiate 

School 

Poughkeepsie Female Acad- 
emy 

Pratt Institute High School. . 

Prattsville Academy 

Princetown Academy 

Prospect Academy 

Randolph Academy Associa- 
tion 

Raymond Collegiate Institute 
Red Creek Union Academy. . 
Red Creek Union Seminary.. 

Red Hook Academy 

Rensselaer OsweRo Academy. 

Rensselaer Institute 

Rensselaerville Academy 

Rhinebeck Academy 

Richburg Academy 

Richmondville Union Sem- 
inary and Female Col- 
legiate Institute 

Ridgebury Academy 

Paga Academy 

Riverdale Institute 

Rochester Athenaeum and 
Mechanical Institute 

Rochester Collegiate Institute 
No. I 

Rochester Collegiate Institute 

No. 2 
Rochester Female Academy. 
Rochester High School No. i . 



Rockland Academy 

Rockland County Female In- 
stitute 

Rogersville Union Seminary. 

Round Lake Academy 

Round Lake Summer Insti- 
tute 

Rural Academy 

Rural Seminary 

Rush Academy of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Zion Con- 
ference 

Rushford Academy 

Rutgers Female Institute . . . 

St Agnes Female Seminary. . 
St Ann's Academic School . . . 
St Austin's School 

St Bernard's Academy 

St Brigid Acaden:ic School 
o / Mai^hattan 



ADDITIONAL DATA 

Name changed from 
Genesee Conference 
Seminary in 1859 

Merged in high school in 
1867 

Name changed from 
Brooklyn Collegiate 
and Polytechnic In- 
stitute in 1889 



Merged 

school in 1859 



common 



DATE OF 
INCOR- 
PORATION DATE LAST 
on REPORTED 
ADMISSION UNDER 
BY NAME 
LOCATION REGENTS GIVEN 

Pike Changed Reporting 

Plattsburg 1829 1870 

Brooklyn Changed Reporting 

Pompey 1811 189s 

Poughkeepsie.. 1839 1841 

Poughkeepsie.. 1837 1865 

Brooklyn 1894 Reporting 

Prattsville 1850 1832 

Princetown .... 1853 t.«54 

Prospect 1851 iS(8 Burned in 1879 

Randolph 1851 1865 Name changed to Cham 

berlain Institute ii 

1866 

Carmel 1859 Did not report to Regents 

Red Creek 1846 1866 

Red Creek 1867 189s 

Redhook 1829 1842 

Mexico 1833 1844 

Troy 1846 1S52 

Rensselaerville. 1845 1S06 

Rhinebeck 1841 1S56 

Richburg 1850 1S66 

Richmondville.. 18^4 Did not report to Regents 

Minisink 1840 1846 

Riga 1846 1803 

Yonkers 1863 18O6 

Rochester 1892 1893 

Rochester Changed 1851 

Rochester 1865 .... 

Rochester 1839 1889 

Rochester 1831 1837 Name charged to 

Rochester Collegiate 
Institute No. i in 1838 

Nyack 1878 Did not report to Regents 

Nyack-on- 1855 1868 

Hudson 
South Dansville 1853 1891 

Round Lake... 1897 1898 

Round Lake .. . 1889-90 Reporting Also classified as a special 

school 
Montgomery... 1852 Not organized 

East Pembroke. 1856 1891 

Twelfth Town- 1864 Not organized 

ship 

Rushford 1852 1868 

New York 1840 1866 

Brooklyn 1895 Reporting 

Homellsville . . . 1894 Reporting 

West New 1886 Reporting 

Brighton 

Cohoes 1890 Reporting 

New York ijoo Reporting 



N.ime changed to Mex- 
ico Academy in 1845 

Merged in^ Rensselaer 
Pf)lytechnic Institute 
in i<S6i 



Merged in high school in 
1873 (?) 



Closed in 1871 

.\l5o classified as a 
special school and re- 
ported in other years 

Name changed from 
Rochester High School 
No. I in 183S 

Did not report to Reg- 
ents 



Merged in high school in 
1867 

Merged in Rutgers Fe- 
male College in 1867 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 95 



NAME 

St Catharine's Academic 
School of New York 

St Cecilia's Academic School 
of New York 

St Elizabeth's Academy 

St Faith s School 

St Francis Xavier's Academic 
School 

St Gabriel's Academy of Man- 
hattan 

St Gabriel's School 

St James's Academy of 
Brooklyn 

St Joachim's Academic In- 
stitute 

St John's Academic School. . 

St John's Academic School of 
Goshen 

St John's Academic School 
of Schenectady 

St John's Academy 

St John's Academy of Rens- 
selaer 

St John's Catholic Academy. 

St John'* Military School 

St Joseph's Academic School. 

St Joseph's Academic School . 

St Joseph's Academic School. 

St Joseph's Academic School. 

St Joseph's Academy 

St Joseph's Academy 

St Joseph's Academy 

St Joseph's Academy and Fe- 
male Industrial School 

St Lawrence Academy 



St Lawrence Academy of 
Manhattan 

St Margaret's School 

St Mary's Academic School. . 

St Mary's Academy 

St Mary's Academy and In- 
dustrial Female School 

St Mary's Academy of Hoo- 
sick Falls 

St Mary's Academy of Hud- 
son 

St Mary's Academy of Little 
Falls 

St Mary's Catholic Institute. 

St Patrick's Academy 

St Patrick's Academy of Troy. 

St Paul's Academy of Oswego. 

St Peter's Academy 

St Peter's Academy 

St Philomena's Academic 
School 

St Stanislaus Academic School 

St Teresa's Ursuline Academy 

St Thomas' Academic School 
of New York 

St Thomas Aquinas Academy. 

Sag Harbor Institute 



LOCATION 

New York . . 



New York. 



Allegany 

Saratoga Spgs . 
Brooklyn 



New York. 



New York. 
Brooklyn. . 



DATE OF 
INCOR- 
PORATION DATE LAST 
OR REPORTED 
ADMISSION LENDER 
BY NAME 
REGENTS GIVEN 

1900 Reporting 

1900 Reporting 

189s Reporting 

1893 Reporting 
189s Reporting 

1898 Reporting 

1894 Reporting 
1897 Reporting 



ADDITIONAL DA T 4 



Watertown . 



Greenbush. 
Goshen .... 



Schenectady . 



Albany 

Rensselaer. 



Syracuse 

Manlius 

Batavia 

Binghamton . . . 
Brasher Falls. . . 
Mount Vernon. 

Albany 

Flushing 

Troy 

Lockport 



Potsdam . 



New York. 



BufTalo 

Dunkirk 

Ogdensburg . . . 
Buffalo 



Hoosick Falls. 



Hudson . 



Little Falls. 

Amsterdam . 

Catskill 

Troy 

Oswego . . . . 

Rome 

Troy 

Brushton . . . 



Keeseville . 
New York. 
New York. 



Sand Lake Academy. 
Sans Souci Seminary. 
Saugerties Academy . 
Sauquoit Academy. . . 



Brooklyn . . . 
Sag Harbor. 

Sand Lake . . 
Ballston. . . . 
Saugerties . . 
Sauquoit . . . 



Schenectady Academy Schenectady . 

Schenectady Academy Schenectady . 



1894 



1896 



189s 1896 

1900 Reported in I go 1 



1898 


Reporting 




1896 


Reporting 




1895 


Reporting 




1888-90 


Reporting 




1890 


Reporting 




1897 


Reporting 




1894 


Reporting 




1891-96 


Reporting 




1900 


Reporting 




1892 


Reporting 




1892 


Reporting 




1896 


Reporting 




1890 


Reporting 




I8I6 


1869 


Merged in " Potsdam 
Normal School " in 
1868 


1898 


Reporting 




1885 


Reporting 




1804 


Reporting 




1890 


Reporting 




189s 


Reporting 





1894 Reporting 

1900 Reported in rgoi 

1898 Reporting 

1883-87 Reporting 
1892 Reporting 

1898 Reporting 

1899 Reporting 
1890 Reporting 

1889-91 Reporting 
1894 Reporting 

1805 Reporting 
i8c6 Reporting 

1900 Reporting 



1896 Reporting 
1846 ISt)2 

1846 1856 

186^ 1867 

1854 1864 

1849 1894 



1793 
1818 



1795 
1837 



Merged in high schcol in 

1862 
Closed about 1874 



Merged in high school in 
1894 (?) 

Merged in Union College 
in 1795 

A revival of the Schenec- 
tady Academy cf 1793 
and used as a prepara- 
tory school of Union 
College 



96 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



DATE OF 

INCOR- 
PORATION DATE LAST 
OR REPORTED 

ADMISSION UNDER 



NAME 

Schenectady Lyceum and 
Ladies' 



Academy 
Schenectady Young 

Seminary 
Schoharie Academy. . 



Schuylerville Academy . 



Scientific and Military Acad- 
emy of the Western District 

Seminary of the Genesee Con- 
ference 



LOCATION 

Schenectady . 
Schenectady . 
Schoharie. . . . 
Schuylerville 
Whitesboro . 
Cazenovia. . . 



BY 

REGENTS 

1839 
1839 
1839 
1840 



NAME 
GIVEN 



ADDITIONAL DATA 



Seminary of the Genesee and Cazenovia. 
Oneida Conferences 



Seneca Falls Academy 

Seward Female Seminary of 

Rochester 
Seymour Smith Academy. . . . 
Sherburne Union Academy. . . 

Sherman Academy 



1855 

1839 Reported one year only 

1872 Merged in high school in 

1873 
1866 Merged in high school in 

1878 (?) 
1829 Did not report to Regents 

1828 1829 Name changed to Semi- 

nary of the Genesee 
and Oneida Confer- 
ences in 1829 
Changed 183s Name changed to 

O n e i da Conference 
Seminary in 1835 (see 
Seminary of the Gene- 
see Conference) 
187s Merged in high school in 
1867 



i8S3 



1856 



Sherman Collegiate Institute. 



Sodus Academy 

Spencertown Academy 

Spring Mills Academy 

Springville Academy 

S. S. Seward Institute 

Stsmford Seminary 

Starkey Seminary 

Staten Island Academy 

Steuben Academy 

Stillwater Academy 

Sullivan County Academy. . . 

Susquehanna Seminary 

Syracuse Academy. 

Temple Grove Seminary 

Ticonderoga Academy 

Trinity School 

Troupsburg Academy 

Troy Academy 

Troy Female Seminary 

Trumansburg Academy 

Unadilla Academy 

Union Academy 

Union Academy 

Union Academy of Belleville. 

Union Hall 

Union Literary Society 

Union Village Academy 

University Preparatory 
School 

Ursuline Convent 

Ursuline Seminary 

Utica Academy 



Reporting 
1873 



186s 



Merged in high school in 
1867 

Name changed to Sher- 
man Collegiate Insti- 
tute in 1892 (see 
Moriah Academy) 

Name changed from 
Sherman Academy in 
1892 

Merged in high school in 
1870 



Closed in 1830 
Reincorporated in 



1848 



Seneca Falls. . . 1839 

Rochester 1840 

Pine Plains ... . 1874-79 

Sherburne 1840 

Moriah Changed 1892 

Moriah Changed Reporting 

Sodus i8ss 

Spencertown... 1847 

Spring Mills. .. 1861 

Springville 1830 

Florida 1848 

Stamford 1872 

Starkey 1848 

New Brighton.. 1885 

Steuben 1828 

Stillwater 1839 

Bloomingburg. . 1831 

Binghamton . . . 1854 

Syracuse 1839 

Saratoga 1869-79 

Ticonderoga. . . 1858 

New York 1895 

Troupsburg 1861 

Troy 1839 

Iroy 1838 

Trumansburg.. 1854-58 

Unadilla 1852 

Stone Arabia. . . 1795 

Granger 1855 

Belleville Changed 

Jamaica 1792 

Belleville 1830 

Union Village . . 1840 

Ithaca 189s 

Bedford Park . . 1895 Reporting 

New Rochelle. . 1898 Reporting 

Utica 1814 1875 Merged in high school in 

1853 



Name changed to " Grif- 
fith Academy " in 1866 
189s 
1877 
Reporting 
Reporting 
1829 
1853 
1832 
i860 
1844 
Reporting 
Did not report to Regents; merged 

in union free school in 1872 
Reporting 

1865 Burned about 1870 
Reporting 
Reporting 
1876 



1893 



1796 
Not organized 
Reporting Name 



Merged in high school in 

1879 
Merged in high school in 

1893 (?) 



changed from 

Union Literary Society 

in 1859 
Intermittent in reports 
Name changed to Unio"-- 

Academy of Belleville 

in 1859 
Merged in high school in 

1868 
Did not report to Regents 



1893 
I8S9 



1868 



DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF INCORPORATED ACADEMIES 97 



NAME 

Utica Catholic Academy 

Utica Female Academy 

Vernon Academy 

Wagrner Memorial Lutheran 

College 
Wallkill Academy 

Walton Academy 

Walworth Academy 

Warnersville Union Seminary 

and Female Institute 
Warrensburg Academy 

Warwick Institute 

Washington Academy 

Washington Academy 

Washington County Seminary 
and Collegiate Institute . . . 

Waterford Academy 

Waterloo Academy 

Watervliet Collegiate Insti- 
tute (Watervliet Academy) 
Watkins Academy 

Waverly Institute 

Wayne County Collegiate In- 
stitute 

Wayne and Ontario Collegiate 
Institute 

Webster Academy 

Westerleigh Collegiate Insti- 
tute 
Westfield Academy 

West Hebron Classical School 

Westtown Academy 

West Winfield Academy 

Whitehall Academy 

White Plains Academy 

Whitesboro Academy 

Whitestown Seminary 

Williamsville Academy 

Wilson Academy 

Wilson Collegiate Institute. . 

Windsor Academy 

WoodhuU Academy 

WorrallHall 

Yates Academy . 

Yates County Academy and 

Female Institute 

Yates Polytechnic Institute. 



DATE OF 
INCOR- 
PORATION DATE LAST 
OR REPORTED 
ADMISSION UNDER 
BY NAME 
LOCATION REGENTS GIVEN ADDITIONAL DATA 

Utica 1 89 1 Reporting 

Utica 1839 Reporting 

Vernon 1839 187s Merged in hign school in 

186s 
Rochester 1892 Reporting 

Middletown . . . 1842 1875 Merged in high school in 

1868 
Walton i8s4 1869 Merged in high school in 

1868 

Walworth 1843 Reporting 

Warnersville. . . i8s4 Did not report to Regents 

Warrensburg... i860 1888 Merged in high school in 

1889 (?) 

Warwick 1854 1895 Merged in high school in 

1868 

Salem 1791 Reporting Merged in high school in 

i8S3 

Warwick 1811 Not organized 

Fort Edward. . . 1854 1864 Name changed to Fort 

Edward Collegiate In- 
stitute in 1865 

Waterford 1839 1847 Merged in high school in 

1871 (?) 

Waterloo 1842 1846 Merged in high school in 

18SS 

Watervliet 1898 Reporting 

Watkins 1860-62 1872 Merged in high school in 

1863 
Waverly 1858 1872 Merged in high school in 

1872 
Newark 1855 i860 Name changed to Wayne 

and Ontario Collegiate 

Institute in i860 

Newark Changed Did not report to Regents. Name 

changed from Wayne County Col- 
legiate Institute in i860 
Webster 1850-58 1878 Merged in union school 

in 1876 (?) 
West New 1891-96 Reporting 

Brighton. . . . 
Westfield 1839 1873 Merged in high school in 

1868 
West Hebron. . 1855 Did not report to Regents Merged 

Westtown 1840 1847 in high school in 1858 

West Winfield . . 1851 1883 Merged in high school in 

1884 

Whitehall 1848 1864 Sold in 1867 

White Plains... 1830 Did not report to Regents 

Whitesboro.... 1813 1849 Made intermittent re- 

ports 
Whitesboro.... Changed 1885 Name changed from 

Clinton Seminary in 

1844 
Williamsville... 1867 1869 Merged in high school in 

187s (?) 
Angelica 1881-86 1896 Merged in high school in 

1897 
Wilson 1846 1869 Merged in high school in 

1869 
Windsor 1849 1870 Merged in high school in 

1871 
Woodhull 1868 1884 Merged in high school in 

1879 

Peekskill 1890 1895 

Yates 1842 1890 

Penn Yan 1830 1836 Closed about 1848 

Chittenango. . . 1853 1872 Merged in high school m 



98 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Explanations: i The word " Reporting " is used to indicate that the school was in operation 
at the close of the nineteenth century. 

2 Names inclosed in quotations are for schools not in the University, or not recogni/.ed at the 
time by the Regents. 

3 In case a school used two names simultaneously, or was located in more than one place or a 
place with two names, such duplicate names are inclosed in parentheses. 

4 The date of incorporation or admission by Regents is not given for names included in the 
list that do not represent the entrance of a school but only a change in the name of an academy 
entered at some previous date. Cross references with the dates of changes are given in such 
instances, and instead of the entrance date the word " Changed " is used. 

5 Where two dates are given for the incorporation or admission by Regents, the first is the 
date of provisionil and the second that of perm.inent admission. 

Notes: i The above catalog does not contain the names of: (a) Academies incorporated by 
the Legislature or general law and not recognized by the Regents, (b) high schools and free 
academies, {c) a few special schools reported with academies after 1890, {d) a few foreign schools 
reporting to the Regents, {e) schools of college rank. 

2 Certain academies continued to report under the same name a number of years after they 
had merged in high schools. This fact is shown in the table. 

3 Some of the academies that were promoted to college rank continued to maintain an academic 
department of the college. In these cases, the academy is considered to have both merged in a 
college and to have been continued as an academy often with a change in name. 

Continuity of Academies 

The extent to which academies under the Regents may be regarded 
as permanent institutions is shown in table 17. Some that were 
incorporated were not even organized, others continued only a few 
years; but a number lasted over a half century, and a few for over a 
hundred years. A summary of these facts is contained in table 18. 

Table 18 

(Compiled from table 17) 

Number of years that the several academies continued in operation under 
the Regents. 

Note: The time from which an academy was incorporated or recoftnized by the Regents until 
it last reported as an academy is taken as the number of years that it was in operation under the 
Regents. The fact that it might have been established a number of years before it entered the 
University, or have continued to report to the Regents as a high school after it ceased as an 
academy, is not considered here. The large number in operation for less than ten years is partly 
accounted for by the fact that a large number included in the list were incorporated near the 
close of the nineteenth century. 

Number in operation less than one year 33 From 55 to 60 years 7 

From 1 to 5 years 68 From 60 to 65 years 11 

From s to 10 years 74 From 65 to 70 years 4 

From 10 to is years 44 From 70 to 75 years 6 

From 15 to 20 years 35 From 75 to 80 years 3 

From 20 to 25 years 19 From 80 to 85 years 6 

From 25 to 30 years 30 From 85 to 90 years i 

From 30 to 35 years 20 From 90 to 95 years 2 

From 35 to 40 years 20 From 95 to 100 years 3 

From 40 to 45 years 12 From 100 to 105 years 4 

From 45 to so years 20 From 105 to no years i 

From so to S5 years n 

Some academies that ceased reporting to the Regents as represented 
in table 17 were continued privately or in some form of public school 
or college, and in the latter form continued to report to the Regents, 
if the public school or college was in the University. Others ceased 
to exist when they left the University. The disposition that was made 
of the academies that ceased to report as academies to the Regents is 
summarized in the following table. 



development and support of incorporated academies 99 

Table 19 

Summary of academies in the University during the eighteenth and nine- 
teenth centuries 

Number of academies incorporated by the Regents 299 

Number of academies incorporated by the Legislature and recognized 

by the Regents 121 

Number of academies incorporated under the general law and recog- 
nized by the Regents 14 

Number incorporated by the Legislature and not recognized by 

the Regents 86'^ 

Number incorporated under the general law and not recognized 
by the Regents 5 

Whole number of academies that were at any time under the Regents 434" 

Number that were in operation in 1900 137& 

Number that were extinct in 1900 297 

Number of those extinct that had merged in colleges 9 

Number of those extinct that had merged in normal schools 4 

Number of those extinct that had merged in high schools 98 

Number of those extinct that had merged in common schools.... 6 

Number of those extinct that had merged in private schools 5 

Number of those extinct not accounted for 175'' 

297 
Conclusions 

1 The close relation between the development of the academy 
system under the Regents and the state aid to those institutions is 
evidenced by the large numbers that were incorporated when the 
appropriations were increased, and by the advanced requirements of 
the State and Regents that accompanied increased appropriations. 

2 The most important effect of state aid to academies was the 
strengthening of the authority of the Regents over them. The chief 
penalty that the Regents could inflict was to withhold from an 
academy that failed to observe the ordinances its share of the public 
funds. State aid also tended to keep tuition rates lower, and make 
possible institutions in localities that could not have otherwise main- 
tained them. 

3 In addition to state aid, academies received financial support 
from tuition fees, endowment funds, and in rare instances from 
taxation. The proportion of total revenue received from taxation 

a Excluding all duplicate names included in table 17. 

b Excluding three special schools, one foreign school, Washington Academy and Ten Broeck 
Free Academy which may be considered high schools and including three academies that were 
incorporated in 1900 and did not report until the following year. 

c Some of these probably merged in high schools near the close of the nineteenth century. 

d This number is somewhat indefinite, because it is not possible to decide in every case whether 
an institution incorporated by the Legislature should be called an " Academy." 



lOO THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

decreased during the nineteenth century; in 1825 it was about 21 
per cent and in 1900 only 0.6 per cent. Academies were compelled 
to depend more upon endowments and, in case of boarding schools, 
fees paid for board. Annual tuition fees increased from $9 in 1825 
to $57 in 1900. 

4 The first form of state aid was land grants and appropriations 
by special legislation to individual schools. The next step was 
temporary appropriations to all academies alike. Permanent funds 
affording a definite annual revenue for academies were the out- 
growth of temporary aid, and began in 181 3. Local taxation was 
tried in a number of instances in the earlier period, and was made 
general in 1872. But tax support of academies was not supported by 
public opinion, and after the measure was defeated in 1873 it was 
never again attempted. 

5 It was the tax law of 1873 that determined in a large measure the 
relation of the high schools and the academies. Since the former 
were supported by taxation and the latter were not, their functions 
and management were to be thereafter different. This led to the 
development of a new type of academy which differed from the 
old-time academy in at least five respects: (a) The new type of 
academy could not depend upon the State for any considerable part 
of its revenue, (b) The number of boarding academies was greater 
than in previous years, (c) The tuition rate was about three times 
higher than in the old-time academy, (d) While the total number 
of academies was about the same, the same institutions were not 
found in the lists of the academies. Only 27.7 per cent of the 
academies reporting tc the Regents in 1900 had been recognized in 
1875. Even in cases where the same name was retained the nature 
of the institution often changed, (e) The new academies were 
largely denominational. In 1873 only 4 per cent of the academies 
were sectarian; in 1893 40 per cent of them were sectarian. 

6 It was the intention of the Regents to make the academies per- 
manent institutions, but this effort was only partly successful. A 
number of the academies recognized by the Regents reported as 
academies only a few years, and comparatively few were in operation 
more than fifty years. However, a number of those that ceased 
reporting as academies did not pass out of existence, but were 
changed into high schools, normal schools, and even into colleges. 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS lOI 

CHAPTER V 
Curriculums and Methods 

Part I Curriculums 

The act of 1787, which fixed the legal status of academies and 
placed the Regents in control of them, did not prescribe a curriculum 
nor designate any subjects as required ; but gave the trustees of 
each school power to adopt a course of study, subject to ratification 
and revision by the Regents. The third article of the act specified 
that the Regents should visit academies, and " examine into the State 
and System of Education and Discipline therein."^ The trustees 
were given power by the same act to "make Bye-Laws for the 
Admission, Education, Government and Discipline of the Scholars 
or Sudents." ^ In other words, they were granted the authority to 
prescribe courses of study for their respective academies. That it 
was intended that the Regents should decide upon any part of the 
curriculum of an academy, or make their ruling apply to all schools, 
is evident from the following clause : " The Trustees thereof shall 
lay before the Regents of the said University, from Time to Time, 
the Plan or System proposed to be adopted, for the Education of 
the Students in each of the said Academies respectively, in order 
that the same may be revised and examined by the said Regents, 
and by them be altered or amended, or approved and confirmed, as 
they shall judge proper." ^ 

To what extent the subject matter taught in academies should be 
uniform was left by the law of 1787 to the discretion of the Regents. 
Before 181 7 there was no ordinance or law requiring academies to 
teach any particular subject ; but each institution was left free to 
choose its own curriculum. In that year the Regents passed a reso- 
lution requiring all academies that received state aid to teach the 
classics and other college entrance subjects. It was decided to dis- 
tribute the money appropriated by the State on the basis of the 
number of pupils in each academy pursuing subjects required for 
college entrance.* The entrance requirements of colleges at that 
time, practically uniform for all, may be judged by those of 
Columbia, which were: Latin, the ability to read Virgil; Greek, 



* Pratt, Annals of Public Education in the State of New York, in Univer- 
sity Convocation Proceedings, 1875, p. 264. 

' Ibid., p. 269. 
' Loc. cit. 

* Minutes of the Regents, April 7, 1817. Quoted by Hough, p. 446. 



I02 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

the Greek Testament ; and arithmetic.^ All academies that hoped to 
share in the funds distributed by the Regents were then required to 
teach Latin, Greek and mathematics. The Regents explained that 
by this act they sought to hold the academies to advanced studies, 
by rewarding those giving instruction in the more advanced subjects, 
and discouraging the practice of confining the instruction chiefly to 
elementary studies. But opposition to using the funds for the 
encouragement of the classics at the expense of the advanced English 
studies arose. The literature committee of the Senate showed in its 
report that, since the Regents paid nothing for pupils pursuing only 
the more practical studies, the tendency was for schools to discourage 
the study of such studies, or to charge an unfair rate of tuition for 
them.*' The Legislature modified the rule of the Regents in 1827 by 
a law which required that the appropriation of the State be dis- 
tributed in proportion to the number of pupils enrolled in classical 
or advanced English studies, or in both. This act is of special 
significance, because it was the only law ever passed prescribing 
subjects of study, and remained in force until virtually annulled 
by the acts passed in 1877 and 1880, a period of fifty years, estab- 
lishing examinations.^ It occurred in the revised statutes in the 
following words : " Every such distribution shall be made in propor- 
tion to the number of pupils in each academy, who, for four months 
during the preceding year, shall have pursued therein, classical 
studies, or the higher branches of English education, or both. No 
pupil in any such seminary, shall be deemed to have pursued classi- 
cal studies, unless he shall have advanced at least, so far as to have 
read in Latin, the first book of Aeneid; nor to have pursued the 
higher branches of English education, unless he shall have advanced 
beyond such knowledge of arithmetic, (including vulgar and decimal 
fractions,) and of English grammar and geography, as is usually 
obtained in common schools."^ The Regents passed an ordinance 
the next year in accordance with this law, but defining more in 
detail what the admission requirements should be; which were one- 
half of Corderius, one-half of Historia Sacra, one-third of Viri 
Romae, and two books of Caesar's Commentaries for the classical 
department;'' and for the higher English studies, the following was 
the requirement : 



■* Broome, A Historical and Critical Discussion of College Admission 
Requirements, p. 39, 41. 
' Senate Tour., 1827, p. 226. 
'Laws of 1877, chap. 425, par. 6; Laws of 1880, chap. 514, par. i. 

* I R. S. 458, par. 24, 25. 

* Regents Instructions, 1834, p. 24. 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS lO^ 

No Students, in any such academy, shall be considered scholars in the higher 
branches of English education, within the meaning of this ordinance, until 
they shall, on examination duly made, be found to have attained to such 
proficiency in the arts of reading and writing, and to have acquired such 
knowledge of the elementary rules or operations of arithmetic, commonly 
called notation, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as well in 
their compound as in their simple forms, and as well in vulgar and decimal 
fractions as in whole numbers, together with such knowledge of the parts 
of arithmetic commonly called reduction, practice, and the single rule of 
three direct, and simple interest, as is usually acquired in the medium or 
average grade of common schools in this State; and until they shall also, 
on such examination, be found to have studied so much English grammar 
as to be able to parse correctly any common prose sentence in the English 
language, and to render into good English the common examples of bad 
grammar given in Murray's or some other like grammatical exercises; and 
shall also have studied, in the ordinary way, some book or treatise in geog- 
raphy, equal in extent to the duodecimo edition of Morse's, Cumming's, 
Woodbridge's or Willett's geography, as now in ordinary use. 

These acts established definite entrance requirements to studies 
of academic rank in all Regents academies. The lavv^ specified one 
subject in classical studies, and was silent in regard to the curriculum 
of the English department. The Regents supplemented the lav^ by 
prescribing English composition and declamation for both classical 
and English students.^" Neither the Legislature nor the Regents 
said anything about the content of the Enghsh course further than 
composition and declamation. The reason for this omission is 
explained by the Regents committee on distribution, which reported 
in 1829: that the difficulty of including all subjects that should be 
credited, and the desire to allow the Regents more freedom in decid- 
ing from time to time on various subjects had prevented any fixed 
curriculum being specified. ^^ Practically all subjects offered, except 
Latin, Greek, elementary geography, elementary arithmetic, English 
grammar, and the entrance studies for the classical department, were 
accepted by the Regents as advanced English studies. The more 
important of these as enumerated in 1829 were: history (all kinds), 
geometry, algebra, botany, rhetoric, natural philosophy, moral 
philosophy, logic, chemistry, bookkeeping, surveying, mensuration, 
navigation, astronomy, trigonometry, constitution of United States 
and of New York, Grecian and Roman antiquities, advanced arith- 
metic, advanced geography, French, German, Spanish, and other 
modern languages.^^ 



"Ordinance of the Regents, passed March 18, 1828. Regents Instructions, 
1834. P- 24. 
" Regents Instructions, 1834, p. 19. 
"Loc. cit. 



104 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Although the law of 1827 remained in force until 1877, it never 
interfered with progress, because it fixed only a minimum require- 
ment beyond which the Regents were free to act. By the law of 
1877, the Regents were given authority to hold examinations in such 
studies "as in the judgment of the Regents, will furnish a suitable 
standard of graduation from the said academies and academic 
departments of union schools, and admission to the several colleges 
of the State."^^ This virtually placed the Regents in complete con- 
trol of the curriculum of academies by establishing a new basis of 
authority. Heretofore, the only reward of a school for complying 
with the ordinances of the Regents was a share in the funds appro- 
priated by the State, but now the advantage of offering instruction 
leading to a Regents diploma, which admitted the holder to the 
colleges of the State, was added for the benefit of those schools that 
followed the prescribed course. The power of the Regents over 
the curriculum was still further increased three years later by a law 
providing that one-fourth of the funds appropriated might be dis- 
tributed on the basis of the number of students who had during the 
year received the Regents diploma.^* 

The following outline is a brief sketch of the subjects required for 
entrance to academic rank and the curriculums prescribed by laws 
and ordinances during various periods from 1817 to the close of 
the century.^^ 









YEAR 


Required by law 


R 


iouired by ordinance 




Higher English Classical 


Higher English Classical studies 




studies studies 


studies 






There was no law concerning entrance 




Entrance 


I8I7" 


or curriculum until 1827 


None 


None 
Curriculum 






None 


Latin 
Greek 
Arithmetic 




Entrance 




Entrance 

Latin equal to: 




Elementary arithmetic 


Reading 


One-half of Cor- 




Elementary geography None 


Writing 


derius 




English grammar 


Elementary 


arith- One-half of Historia 


I8281' 




metic 


Sacra 






Elementary geography One-third of Viri 






English grammar Romae 





"Laws of 1877, chap. 425, par. 6. 

"Laws of 1880, chap. 514, par. i. 

" The law of 1827 required that an academy should offer either classical 
studies, higher English studies, or both; but no school was required to offer 
both. 

"Minutes of the Regents, April 7, 1817. 

" Laws of 1827, chap. 228. Regents Instructions, 1834, p. 24, 25. 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS 



105 



Required by law 
Higher English studies Classical studies 

Curriculum 
Indefinite Virgil's Aeneid, 
first book 


Required by ordinance 
Higher English studies Classical studies 

Two books of Cae- 
sar's Commen- 
taries 

Curriculum 
English composition Virgil's Aeneid, first 
and declamation book 

English composition 
and declamation 


YEAR 


The same as in 1828 


Entrance 

Same as for higher 
Same as in 1828 English studies 
and: 

Latin equivalent to 
the Latin reader 

One-third of Corne- 
lius Nepos 

Two books of Cae- 
sar's Comment- 
aries 

Curriculum 

English composition The same as in 

and declamation higher English 

Reviews in spelling, studies and Vir- 

reading and writing gil's Aeneid, first 

book 


I8S3" 


The same as in 182 1 


Entrance 
Reading 

Writing The same as in 
Elementary arithmetic higher English 
Elementary geography studies 
English grammar 
Spelling 

Curriculum 

The same as in 
higher English 
studies and: 
First book of Virgil, 
The same as in 185320 or equivalent in 
Caesar, Sallust, or 
Cicero 


1864" 


The law of 1827 was virtually annulled 
by the acts of 1877 and 1880, and all con- 
trol of the curriculum delegated to the 
Regents 


Entrance 
The same as in 1864, The same as for 
except writing is higher English 
omitted studies 
Curriculum 
(The same for both higher English and clas- 
sical studies) 

1 Algebra Any four of the fol- 

2 Plane geometry lowing (14-20) 

3 Physiology 14 English literature 

4 Natural philosophy is Moral philosophy 

5 Rhetoric and Eng- 16 Science of gov- 

lish composition ernment 

6 American and gen- 17 General history 

eral history 18 Zoology 

7 Chemistry 19 Plane trigonom- 

etry 
20 Drawing 
Any four of the follow- The following may 
ing (8-13) be substituted for 

8 Botany Nos. 12 to 20 in- 

9 Physical geography elusive, or any of 

10 Physical astronomy them: 

11 Mental philosophy 21 Latin 

12 Bookkeeping 22 Greek 

13 Geology 23 French 

24 German 


187921 



'8 Regents Instructions, 1853, p. 62, 63. 

"University Manual, 1864, p. 61-62. 

2° This part of the curriculum is not found in the University Manual of 1864, but is repeated in 
the Manuals of 1870 and 1882, and was a part of the information that the academies were required 
to report until 1869, after which time these subjects were probably no longer required. See Regents 
Rep'ts, 1864-69. 

2' Regents Rep't, 1879, p. x, xi. 



io6 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Required by ordinance 
Higher English studies Classical studies 

Entrance 
The same as in 1879 The same as in 1879 



Curriculum 



Algebra 
American history 
Physical geography 
Physiology 
Rhetoric 
Plane geometry 
Any eight additional,^ 
four from each group 



Bookkeeping 
Civil government 
English literature 
History of England 
History of Greece 
History of Rome 
Mental philosophy 
Moral philosophy 
Political economy 

II 

Algebra (higher) 

Astronomy 

Botany 

Chemistry 

Drawing 

Geology 

Physics 

Plane trigonometry 

Solid geometry 

Zoology 



Algebra 

American history 
Plane geometry 
Caesar (Bks. 1-4) 
Sallust's Cataline 
Virgil's Aeneid, 
(Bks. 1-6) 

Virgil's Ecologues 
Cicero, 6 Orations 
Latin composition 
Xenophon's Anab. 

(Bks. 1-3) 
Homer's Iliad, (Bks. 

1-3) 



It will be seen from the preceding tabulation that the subjects 
required for entrance to academic standing remained practically 
unchanged throughout the entire period. There were some changes 
in the entrance studies for the classical subjects, and by 1864 all 
Latin requirements for entrance had disappeared. For higher 
English studies, geography, English grammar and arithmetic 
remained throughout, and spelling and writing fluctuated. Before 
1879, the prescribed curriculum consisted chiefly of reviews in ele- 
mentary subjects, English composition and declamation with the 
addition of the first book of Virgil's Aeneid or its equivalent in the 
classical studies. The subjects announced by the Regents in 1879 
and 1889 as they appear in the tabulation above were not changed 
materially during the remainder of the century.^* 



Subjects Reported to Have Been Taught by Academies 
The few subjects required by law and ordinances previous to 
1879 were but a small portion of the curriculums in actual use in 



-2 University Manual, 1889, p. 72. 

^ Some of the classical studies could be substituted for some of these under certain restrictions. 
See Regents Manual, 1889, p. 72. 

-^Cf. Regents Rep't, 1900, p. 1251-61. 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS 107 

academies. Most of the subjects taught were chosen freely by each 
school, and included a wide range of studies in nearly every field of 
knowledge. These subjects and the number of academies in which 
each was taught during the years indicated, are enumerated in 
table 20. 

Table 20 

The number of academies (including high schools) offering the various 
subjects for the years indicated. 

This table shows how the logical divisions of physics were first taught as 
separate subjects, and were later combined with natural philosophy, which 
was called physics after 1880. 

Note: These figures are complete up to 1870 except for the year 170'; for which the reoort mr, 
tains the curriculums of only four of the nine academies reporting to the RegLTs that year BeJ^n' 
nmg with 1870 the figures refer to the number of different kinds of textbooks (dffferent autho?)" 
used in the schools reporting. For some elementary subjects, a few schools probaWy used texts 
of two or more authors, and hence would be counted two or more times; for example the number of 
TSrio teachmg arithmetic in 1870 ^3 eiven as 215. with the total number of schools re^roting 
wVh.^ .f ^°tI'-^''|-''°""*'''^ ^^"^^' °l 'Ir"^^ reported three or more authors used the number s 
ess than 31. This discrepancy is probably confined to elementary subjects, and in no ca^ is it 



io8 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



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CURRICULUMS AND METHODS 



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THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



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CURRICULUMS AND METHODS 



III 



The curriculums of the first two incorporated academies present, at 
their beginning in 1787, some significant features. They furnish a 
clue to the relationship between the eighteenth century Latin gram- 
mar school and the academies of the following century. Erasmus 
Hall and Clinton Academy were both organized with two depart- 
ments; each with separate subject matter, the Latin or classical 
and the English departments. The curriculums of the two academies 
were as follows : ^^ 



Classical departments 



English departments 



Erasmus Hall 


Clinton Academy 


Erasmus Hall 


Clinton Academy 


Latin 


Latin 


English 


English 


Greek 


Greek 


language 


grammar 


Geography 


Geography 


Reading 


Reading 


History, 


Mathematics 


Writing 


Writing 


general 


Natural 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 




philosophy 


Bookkeeping 


Accountantship 




Logic 


Elocution 


Public 






French 


speaking 
French 



It will be noticed that the classical department differed from the 
Latin grammar school of an early type only in containing more subject 
matter in its curriculum. In addition to the classics, the classical 
departments included mathematics and sciences, but it was not unlike 
the grammar schools of the second part of the eighteenth century 
in this respect, because many of those taught geography and mathe- 
matics. These academies were then organized to give the same kind 
of education that the grammar schools gave to those who desired it. 

The English departments seem to have been planned to give an 
elementary and practical education to those who were not preparing 
for college. To this extent the academies departed from the grammar 
schools and were the harbingers of the many academies that followed. 

In the absence of any legal necessity, the two curriculums are 
surprisingly similar. In the English departments, the same studies, 
except that they dififered in terminology, were offered ; and the 
principal subjects of the classical were the same. This was probably 
due to common conditions and needs, the same location and educa- 
tional situation in which both were placed. 

The curriculums of Erasmus Hall and Clinton Academy served as 
models for the incorporated acadeinies of the State for the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century. For a period of nearly forty 



Assembly Jour., 1788, p. 97. 



112 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



years, only nine more subjects were taught in academies.-^ Of the 
fourteen subjects in the curriculums of the original academies, all 
except two (logic and elocution) continued through to the end of the 
nineteenth century ; though writing was not reported after 1880,-^ 
and natural philosophy underwent changes in organization of subject 
matter and name. 

The classical and the English departments organized in 1787 were 
recognized by law in 1827, made a part of the organization of the 
University by the Regents, and continued in 1889 under the names 
of Latin course and English course.-^ 

The relation between the subjects that the academies claimed to 
teach and the studies prescribed by law and ordinance was very close 
and definite. The required subjects were always few, and were in 
such close agreement with the demands of the clientele of the 
academies that there would have been no reason to neglect them. 
The danger of principals and trustees making false reports for the 
sake of securing a larger share of the funds distributed by the 
Regents was mitigated by requiring every report to be accompanied 
by an affidavit declaring it to be correct. For these reasons, it is 
evident that very few academies failed to meet the requirements 
specifying a part of the curriculum. 

Between 1817 and 1827, when the Regents required only college 
entrance subjects, Latin, Greek and arithmetic, only a few of the 
academies were of such an elementary grade that they were not able 
to offer those subjects, as is shown by table 21. 



Table 21 

This table shows what subjects were required by law and ordinance 
previous to 1865, the number of academies that claimed to teach those sub- 
jects, and the numher that failed to meet the requirement. 



Academies and high schools re- 


1817 

25 

24 
24 
23 


1826 

33 

33 
33 
33 


1830 
58 
58 


l83S 
66 
64 


1840 
117 


1845 
IS3 
148 


1850 
166 
161 


1855 
165 
161 


i860 
19' 
181 


186s 
212 


Subjects taught 


194 


Greek 
























51 
SI 


66 
63 


127 
114 


153 
143 


163 
150 


163 
152 
163 
163 
163 

13 


'18 J 
II 


















187 






































Academies failing to meet re- 


2 





7 











3 


35 







^ Cf . table 24. 
" Cf. table 20. 
'^University Manual, 1889, p. 72. 



CL^RRICULUMS AND METHODS II3 

From 1826 to 1853, composition was the only subject absolutely 
required of all academies, but Latin was required of all that offered 
a classical course ; and declamation of all except female academies. 
Composition is then made the basis for estimating the number that 
failed to meet the requirements during that period. From 1853 to 
1864, the required curriculum included reviews in reading, spelling 
and writing as well as the usual English composition ; also declama- 
tion for all students. During these years a somewhat larger number 
of schools failed to report the required subjects; but this number 
was relatively small. 

The close cooperation between the academies and the Regents, and 
the strong influence that the Regents exercised over the incorporated 
academies, are well illustrated by the facts presented in the above 
table. 

Continuity and Development of Subjects as Illustrated by Table 20 

The subjects that appear in table 20 may be divided, in respect to 
their continuity, into three groups: ( i) Those that continue through- 
out after they first appear; for example, algebra, English, French 
and Latin; (2) subjects that disappear for a period after they enter, 
but reappear later and continue to the close of the century; for 
example, composition, drawing, history of England, history of New 
York, stenography; (3) those that do not continue through to the 
close of the century, most of which enter about 1826, and drop out 
about 1875, occupying the middle section of the table. Of these 
there are two kinds: (a) Those that disappear in name, but whose 
subject matter is embodied by means of reorganization and reclassifi- 
cation into other studies that continue; for example, anatomy, elec- 
tricity, natural philosophy.-" (&) Subjects that seem to disappear 
entirely ; for example, calculus, Hebrew, logic. 

The gradual development and organization of a subject by a 
synthesis of its divisions, that were first taught as separate subjects, to 
form one comprehensive study, are illustrated io the case of physics. 
Mechanics was first taught in 1830, optics entered the curriculum in 
1 83 1, hydrostatics in 1832, magnetism in 1839, electricity in 1843, 
pneumatics in 1844, hydraulics in 1850, and statics and dynamics in 
1852.^° The number of academies teaching each of those sciences, 
except the last named, and the way they were included in natural 
philosophy after 1855, are represented by the table below. In 1857, 
the Regents first reported these sciences with natural philosophy.^^ 



Cf. table 22. 
Cf. table 2T,. 
Regents Rep't, 1857. P- 254-71. 



114 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OE THE STATE OE NEW YORK 



and in 1879 the word 
philosophy. 



physics " was substituted for natural 



Table 22 



(The data for this table were taken from talile 20) 
This table shows how the logical divisions of physics were first taught as 
separate subjects, and were later combined with natural philosophy, which 
was called physics after 1880. 



SUBJECTS 

Electricity 

Hydraulics 

Hydrostatics. . . . 

Magnetism 

Mechanics 

Optics 

Pneumatics with hy- 
drostatics 

Natural philosophy . . . 
Physics 



1830 


IS3S 


1840 


1845 


1850 


i8S5 








S 


38 


104 






2 


5 


32 


99 








4 


31 


94 


I 




3 


5 


32 


89 






4 


9 


26 


91 








5 


32 


99 


4(5 


66 


127 


147 


158 


158 



i860 1865 1870 187s 1880 



176 



Another science that passed through a similar process before 
reaching its present form, is physiology. Anatomy first appeared 
in 1837, physiology was reported in 1835 for the first time, and 
hygiene in 1849. They were all entered for a period under the term 
" anatomy," and later reported as physiology.^- Civics was taught 
in the early part of the century as " Constitution of the United 
States, and the State of New York," and later as various forms of 
law.^^ 

Table 21 indicates that, during the fifty years from 1825 to 1875, 
the curriculum was most crowded. A large number of subjects fall 
entirely or chiefly in this section of the table. The disappearance of 
some of these subjects that were merged into some comprehensive 
unit, by a process illustrated in table 22, is only apparent; but others, 
perhaps because there was no demand for them, were no longer 
taught in any form. Hebrew, Italian, meteorology and Spanish are 
types of the latter kind. Still others disappeared entirely from the 
academies, and were continued in colleges ; for example, calculus, 
descriptive and analytical geometry, and engineering. 

The following subjects, together with the twenty-nine appended 



^ Cf. table 20. 

'^ Under the same title appeared, " Duties of Officers, Select and Revised 
Statutes, Conkling's Manual, Criminal and Mercantile Law, Blackstone," but 
except in the last case all seem to be what is now called civics. Regents, 
Rep'ts, 1836, p. 33; 1841, p. 70, 72. 



CUKRICULUMS AND METHODS 



II'5 



to table 20, practically all appeared in the curriculum after 1825, and 
dropped out again before 1879.^* 



Calculus 

Chronology 

Conic sections 

Criticism, elements of 

Declamation 

Ecclesiastical history 

Electricity 

Engineering 

Engmeenng, civil 

Evidences of Christianity 

Geometry, analytical 

Geometry, descriptive 

Grecian antiquities 

Hebrew 

History of literature 

Hydrostatics, and pneumatics 

Hygiene 

Italian 

Leveling 

Logarithms 

Mapping 



Mechanics 

Mensuration 

Meteorologj' 

Mineralogy 

Music 

Mythology 

Natural history 

Natural theology- 

Navigation 

Optics 

Orthography, spelling 

Painting 

Penmanship 

Perspective 

Philosophy, natural 

Phonography 

Pronunciation 

Reading 

Roman antiquities 

Spanish 

Technology 



About seventy subjects were discontinued before 1879, and only 
four were added after that time, so the curriculum of secondary 
schools contained something like sixty-six fewer subjects during 
the last quarter of the century than in previous years. In 1850, 
eighty subjects were taught in secondary schools as compared with 
thirty-four subjects in 1900. It is evident from these data that the 
curriculum was mttch more crowded at the middle of the century 
than at the close. 

Table 23 

This table shows when, according to Regents Reports, various subjects 
entered the curriculums of incorporated academies in the State of New York. 
The date corresponding to each group of subjects is placed at the head of 
the column to which it refers. The arrangement is chronological. 



T787 
Arithmetic 
Bookkeeping 
Declamation, 

elocution 
English 
French 
Geography 



Greek 

History 

Latin 

Logic 

Mathematics 

Natural philosophy 

Reading 

Writing 



1796 
Spelling, 

orthography 

1797 
Arts and sciences 
Astronomy 

7799 
Rhetoric 

rSoi _ 
Surveying 



Cf. table 20. 



ii6 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEINI OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



1S04 
Composition 
English Literature 
Moral philosophy 

1817 
Belles letters 

1825 
Algebra 
Chemistry 
Fluxions 
Geometry, 

plane and solid 
German 

Higher mathematics 
Logarithms 
Philosophy 
Spanish 

Stewart on the mind 
Trigonometry 

1826 
Chronology 
Criticism, 

elements of 
Drawing 
Geography, 

ancient and biblical 
Law (civics) 
Mental arithmetic 
Military tactics 
Navigation 
Painting 
Philosophy, 

intellectual, (mental) 

1827 
Blair's lectures 
Botany 

Conic sections 
Ethics 

Evidences of Christianity 
Evidences, 

Parley's 
Fine needle-work 
Globes 

History of United States 
Mapping 
Mensuration 
Metaphysics 



Military education 

Music 

Philosophy of language 

Roman antiquities 

Watts on the mind 

1828 
Ath. Ex.(?) 
Engineermg 
Fencing and military 

tactics 
Geography, 

physical 
Geometry, 

analytical 
Geometry, 

descriptive 
Grecian antiquities 
Italian 

Jewish antiquities 
Mineralogy 
Natural theology 
Needle-work 
Ornamental needle-w^ork 
Perspective 
Philosophy, 

natural and chemical 
Zoology 

1829 
Hebrew 
History, 

Tytler's 
Mythology 
Natural and moral 

chemistry 

1830 
Architecture 
Calculus 
Dialing 

Ecclesiastical history 
Geography, 

political 
Geology 
Mechanics 
Natural history 
Technology 
Theology 
Topography 



1831 
Biography 

History of New York 
Intellectual arithmetic 
Nautical astronomy 
Optics 
Philosophy, 

vegetable 
Stenography 
Statistics 
Teaching, 

principles of 
Technology, 

mathematical 
Trigonometry, 

plane and spherical 

1832 
Biblical antiquities 
Classical biography 
Ev. religion 
Elements of taste 
Hydrostatics 
Mnemonics 
Music, 

vocal 
Political economy 

1833 
Lectures on English 

language 
Laws of interpretation 

J834 
Extemporaneous speaking 
Leveling 
Pronunciation 

1835 
Engineering, 

civil 
Physiology 

1836 
Embroidery 

1837 
Anatomy 
Dancing 
Phrenology 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS 



117 



1838 


Electricity 




Hydraulics 




Chaldee 


Waxwork 








Meteorology 


1S44 




185J 
Draughting 




1839 


Archaeology 








Magnetism 


Carpentry 




1852 




1840 


Pneumatics (w 


ith 


Statics and 


dynamics 


Conchology 


hydrostatics) 




1867 




J841 


Phreno-mnemo 


techny 


History of 


literature 


Calisthenics 


1846 




1874 




Constitution, 


Phonography 




Commerce 




New York 


1847 








Constitution, 


Ornithology 




1879 




United States 


Psychology 




Physics 




History of England 










History of France 


1849 




188 1 




Isoperimetry 


Gymnastics 
Hygiene 




History of Ureece 
History of Rome 


1842 










Chemistry, 


1850 




1885 




agricultural 


Acoustics 




Geometry, 




1843 


Domestic economy 


solid 





Summary of the number of subjects introduced into the academies in dif- 
ferent years, as shown in the above table : 



1787 
1796 
1797 

1799 
1801 
1802 
1804 
1817 
1825 
1826 
1827 
1828 
1829 
1830 
183 1 
1832 
1833 
1834 
1835 
1836 



14 


1S37 


I 


1838 


2 


1S39 


I 


1840 


I 


1841 


I 


1842 


2 


1843 


I 


1844 


II 


1846 


10 


1847 


17 


1849 


16 


1850 


4 


185 1 


II 


1S52 


II 


1867 


8 


1874 


2 


1879 


3 


1881 


2 


1885 



ii8 



THE ACADEilV SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Table 24 

This table contains the list of subjects, arranged alphabetically, found in 
the curriculums of the nineteenth century academies, with the date when 
each subject first appeared in the reports. 



SUBJECT YtAR 

Acoustics 1850 

Algebra 1825 

Archaeology 1844 

Architecture 1830 

Anatomy 1837 

Arithmetic 1787 

Arts and sciences 1797 

Alh. Ex.(?) 1828 

Astronomy 1797 

Belles letters 1S17 

Biblical antiquities 1832 

Biography 1831 

Blair's lectures 1827 

Bookkeeping (accountantship). 1787 

Botany 1827 

Calculus 1830 

Calisthenics 1841 

Carpentry 1844 

Chaldee 1838 

Chemistry 1825 

Chemistry, agricultural 1841-42 

Chronology 1826 

Classical biography 1832 

Commerce 1874 

Composition 1804 

Conchology 1840 

Conic sections 1827 

Constitution, New York 1841 

Constitution, United States... 1841 

Criticism, elements of 1826 

Dancing 1837 

Declamation (elocution) 1787 

Dialing 1830 

Domestic economy 1850 

Drawing 1826 

Draughting 1851 

Ecclesiastical history 1830 

Electricity 1843 

Elements of taste 1832 

Embroidery 1836 

Engineering 1828 

Engineering, civil 1835 



SUBJECT YEAR 

English, elementary, grammar 

etc 1787 

English literature 1804 

Ethics 1827 

Evidences of Christianity 1827 

Evidences, Parley's 1827 

Ev. religion 1832 

Extemporaneous speaking .... 1834 

Fencing and military tactics.. 1828 

Fine needle-work 1827 

Fluxions 1825 

French 1787 

Geography 1787 

Geography, ancient and biblical 1826 

Geography, physical 1828 

Geography, political 1830 

Geology 1830 

Geometry, analytical 1828 

Geometry, descriptive 1828 

Geometry, plane 1825 

Geometry, solid 1885 

German 1825 

Globes 1827 

Grecian antiquities 1828 

Greek 1787 

Gymnastics 1849 

Hebrew 1829 

Higher mathematics 1825 

History of England 1841 

History of France 1841 

History, general 1787 

History of Greece 1881 

History of literature 1867 

History of New York 1831 

History of Rome 1881 

History, Tytler's 1829 

History of United States 1827 

Hydraulics 1850 

Hydrostatics 1832 

Hydrostatics and pneumatics. 1844 

Hygiene 1849 

Intellectual arithmetic 1831 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS 



119 



SUBJECT 

Isoperimetry 

Italian 

Jewish antiquities 

Latin 

Law (civics) 

Laws of interpretation 

Lectures on English language. . 

Leveling 

Logarithms 

Logic 

Magnetism 

Mapping 

Mathematics 

Mechanics 

Mensuration 

Mental arithmetic 

Metaphysics 

Meteorology 

Military education 

Military tactics 

Mineralogy 

Mnemonics 

Music 

Music, vocal 

Mythology 

Natural history 

Natural and moral chemistry. 

Natural theology 

Nautical astronomy 

Navigation 

Needle-work 

Optics 

Orthography (spelling) 

Ornamental needle-work 

Ornithology 

Painting 

Penmanship (writing) 

Perspective 



YEAR SUBJECT 

1841 Philosophy 

1828 Philosophy, intellectual (men- 

1828 tal) 

1787 Philosophy of language 

1826 Philosophy, moral 

1833 Philosophy, natural 

1833 Philosophy, natural and cliem- 

1834 ical 

1825 Philosophy, vegetable 

1787 Phonography 

1839 Phrenology 

1827 Phreno-mnemotechny 

1787 Physics 

1830 Physiology 

1827 Political economy 

1826 Pronunciation 

1827 Psychology 

1838 Reading 

1827 Rhetoric 

1826 Roman antiquities 

1828 Spanish 

1832 Statics and dynamics 

1827 Stenography 

1832 Stewart on the mind 

1829 Statistics 

1830 Surveying 

1829 Teaching, principles of 

1828 Technology 

1831 Technology, mathematical 

1826 Theology 

1828 Topography 

183 1 Trigonometry 

1796 Trigonometry, plane 

1828 Trigonometry, spherical 

1847 Watts on the mind 

1826 Waxwork; 

1787 Zoology 

1828 



YEAR 
1825 

1S26 
1827 
1804 
1787 

1828 
183 1 
1846 
1837 
1844 
1879 
1835 
1832 
1834 
1847 
1787 
1799 
1827 
1825 
1852 
183 1 
182s 
183 1 
180I 
183 1 
1830 
183I 
1830 
1830 
1825 
183I 
183I 
1827 

1843 
1828 



Note: The sources from which tables 23 and 24 were compiled are referred to below: 

For 1787, First Annual Report of Regents, M.S. 

" 1796, Senate Journal, i797, P- 85. 

" 1797, Assembly Journal, 1798, p. 224. 

" 1799, Assembly Journal, Nov. 1800, p .27. 

" iSoi, Senate Journal, Jan. 1802, p. 114. 

" 1802, Senate Journal, 1803, p. 117. 

" 1804, Assembly Journal, 1805, p. 305. 

" 1817, Senate Journal, 1818, table opposite p. 320. 

" 182S, Senate Journal, 1826, table opposite p. 612. 

" 1826, Senate Journal, 1827, appendix B, table. 

" 1827, Senate Journal, 1828, appendix B. table. 

" 1828, Senate Journal, 1829, p. 431. 

" 1829, Legislative Document, 1830, v. 3, p. 216. 

" 1830, Senate Document, 1831, v. i, no. 50, table opposite p. 6. 

" 1831, Senate Document, 1832, v. 2, no. 72, table opposite p. 14. 

" 1832, Senate Document, 1833, v. 2, no. 70, table opposite p. 8. 



120 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

For 1833, Senate Document, 1834, v. 2, no. 83, table opposite p. 12. 

" 1834, Senate Document, 1835, v. 2, no. 70, p. 31-S2. 

" 1835, Regents Report, 1836, p. 31-36. 

" 1836, Regents Report, 1837, p. S5-6o. 

" 1837, Regents Report, 1838, p. 54-60. 

' 1838, Regents Report, 1839, p. 70-7S. 

" 1839, Regents Report, 1S40, p. 71-77. 

" ■ 1840, Regents Report, 1S41, p. 69-75. 

" 1841, Senate Document, 1842, no. 55, p. 91-98. 

" 1842, Regents Report, 1843, p. 106-13; also p. 122. 

" 1843, Regents Report, 1844, p. 110-18. 

" 1844, Regents Report, 1845, p. 118-27. 

" 1846, Regents Report, 1847. p. 116-27. 

" 1847, Regents Report, 1848, p. 132-42. 

" 1849, Regents Report, 1850, p. 157-70. 

" 1850, Regents Report, 1851, p. 172-85. 

" 1851, Regents Report, 1852, p. 192-207. 

" 1852, Regents Report, 1853, p. 187-202. 

" 1867, Regents Report, 1868, p. 529-45. 

" 1874, Regents Report, 1875, p. 487-50S. 

" 1879, Regents Report, 1880, p. 453-63. 

" 1881, Regents Report, 1882, p. 256-59. 

" 1885, Regents Report, 1886, p. 676-82. 

It is remarkable that a large number of the subjects, nearly two- 
thirds, found in the curriculums of the incorporated academies of the 
State of New York during the nineteenth century, first appeared in 
the decade preceding 1835. Some of those that arose later were not 
new in substance, but only new names for what had been taught in a 
different form. Physics was only another name for natural 
philosophy, and the history of Greece and Rome had probably been 
presented during the middle of the century as Grecian and Roman 
antiquities, or as general history. The fact that eighty-three acade- 
mies were teaching solid geometry the first year that it was reported, 
makes it certain that it had been taught some years previously with 
plane geometry, or with some other study. These facts represent a 
tendency to divide a general field of knowledge, once taught as one 
subject, into its logical factors, making a special subject of each; 
which is the reverse of the process indicated by table 22. 

No attempt has been made in arranging the subjects in table 23 or 
in table 24 to discriminate between names of those that represent 
the same subject matter, and to exclude those entries that might refer 
to the same subject already included in the table under a slightly 
different title ; because it is not safe to assume what titles are dupli- 
cates. For example, military tactics and military education probably 
refer to the same thing. Elements of criticism, elements of taste, 
and powers of interpretation are three that seem to differ only in 
name. Needle-work, fine needle-work, and ornamental needle-work 
might have been considered simply as needle-work. 

Part II Methods 
Information about the methods of instruction in academies, during 
the greater part of the period when they were prominent, must be 
obtained from incidental remarks and fragmentary records, or infer- 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS 121 

red from what the records contain about subject matter, equipment, 
entrance requirements and the Hke. However, from 1835 to 1851, 
the Regents received annual reports on the " mode of instruction " 
practised in academies. These contain sufficient data to substantiate 
some conclusions in regard to the methods then practised; and since 
academies were a well-developed type of institution at that time, this 
information will afford an insight into the methods that prevailed 
during the whole century. 

In 1834, academies were asked to report on " courses and modes 
of instruction,"^^ and were urged not to neglect to state to what 
extent they drilled their pupils in elementary studies and correct 
pronunciation. It was suggested that less time be spent on such 
classical studies as Grecian and Roman antiquities, and that more 
attention be paid to subjects of a more practical kind. In comment- 
ing upon the " mode of instruction," the Secretary of the Regents, 
Gideon Hawley, said that " the leading objects to be pursued in 
every institution for the education of youth, are now generally con- 
ceded to be, to make study voluntary and agreeable to the pupil ; to 
cause it to act directly on his understanding, and through that 
medium on his memory; to cultivate his inventive faculty, by exer- 
cises in composition and other processes requiring him to originate 
thought ; and to learn him to apply the knowledge and skill thus 
acquired to practical purposes most likely to occur to him in after 
life." ^^ He requested that trustees and teachers of academies report 
what special means they were using to accomplish the aims he 
mentioned. 

It is impossible to judge in every case, from the reports made in 
response to these instructions by local officials from year to year, 
when they were describing the practices that prevailed in their schools 
and when they were merely discussing theories. Even when they 
state that they teach by a certain method, we can not be sure that 
they followed it as closely as the report indicates. They were also 
probably influenced somewhat by the views expressed by Secretary 
Hawley, but this was not true of all of them, because they often 
expressed opinions in opposition to his ideas. 

The number of schools from which remarks on method and other 
similar topics were contributed from year to year, the number of 
pages of print devoted to those reports, and the references- to them 
in the Regents Reports are indicated in table 25. 



Regents Instructions, 1834, p. 5, 8, 9. 
Ibid., p. 9. 



122 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



Table 25 



Year for Number 

which report of 

was made schools 

18^4 30 

1835 38 

1S36 27 

1837 32 

1838 38 

i8jo 32 

1 8 10 37 

1841 17 



Refere 


nee 


to II 


Regent 


s Reports 


dated 




1835, 


P-33- 


£9 


iRof", 


P 


.S4- 


74 


1837 


P 


78- 


103 


1838. 


P 


79-105 II 


1839, 


P 


IOC 


-31 


1840, 


P 


86- 


105 


1841, 


P 


84- 


114 


1842, 


P 


I2J 


-50 



Year for Number 

which report of 

was made schools 

1842 9 

1843 17 

1844- ■■ 9 

1845 7 

1846 7 

1847 5 

1848 7 

1849 I 



Reference to 
Regents Reports 
dated 

1843, P.137-SI 

1844, P.13.S-.S6 
184s, p.l4t-54 

1846, p. 140-50 

1847, p. 140-54 

1848, p. 156-71 

1849, p. 1 5 5-69 

1850, p. 185-201 



By systematically scoring the frequency of typical expressions that 
point to certain aims, psychological views and practices, an estimate 
of the prevalence of methods then in use has been made. The con- 
clusions reached by this process are sketched in the next few pages. 

Aims and psychological theories. Among the aims expressed and 
implied, that of mental discipline, training the mind, is most con- 
spicuous ; and its psychological correlative, mental faculties, was the 
theory generally held. In more than one-third of the reports 
referred to in table 25, this aim and theory are evident by such 
expressions as : " teach children to reason ; develop the intellect ; 
train them to think ; train the mental faculties ; the memory is to 
retain, the understanding is to comprehend, and the reason to 
arrange and express ideas ; ^^ no matter what is taught, the impor- 
tant thing is how it is learned." An even clearer statement of this 
view is furnished by one of the contributors, who says : " The mind 
is composed of different faculties or powers ; among the most impor- 
tant of these are memory and the reasoning faculties. The course of 
study pursued is designed to call into exercise and cultivate both 
these powers, as nearly as may be in an equal degree." ^* 

Often where no such direct assertion appears, the formal discipline 
aim is evident in the general and special methods advocated. 

The formation of correct habits, either of thinking or conduct, 
ranked next to mental discipline as an aim, but did not receive more 
than one-fifth of the attention given the latter. At one academy, 
diligence, promptness and accuracy were the principal ends of 
instruction ; and as such virtues are usually considered a result of 
habit, they may be included in the aim of habit formation. 

The acquisition of knowledge as the desideratum in all instruction 
was advanced almost as often as the habit-formation aim. The 
mind must be filled, the memory loaded with information, it was 



Regents Rep't, 1838, p. 84 
Ibid., p. 116. 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS I23 

claimed. In expressing this aim, one writer says : " The great pur- 
poses of education are to store the mind (which in this sense is but 
another name for memory) with useful knowledge; and in the 
process of doing so, to give increased energy, activity and precision 
to the mental faculties." ^° 

That one of the principal ends to be sought in education is the 
development of character, was mentioned about twenty times in all 
the articles written. The importance of character was recognized 
by advocates of formal discipline, and thought to be one of the bene- 
fits that would flow from a " trained mind," but character as an aim 
does not often occur in the reports. 

Harmonious development was not put forth as a definite, con- 
scious aim, but three or four writers advocated a general training of 
all the powers and faculties, and the moral nature as well as the 
mind and body, it was claimed, should receive attention. 

Fitting the young for social service was mentioned not more than 
twice in such a way that indicated the authors were conscious of 
what is now called the social aim. But preparation for citizenship, 
in the sense of being able to vote intelligently, was a common notion 
the first half of the nineteenth century. 

Besides the general aims enumerated above, a number of specific 
aims, relating to some one subject, or to a limited range of thought 
and conduct, are scattered throughout the contributions. An ade- 
quate means of expression in language ; thoroughness in learning 
subject matter ; the ability to think for one's self ; and to become a 
good grammarian, were all brought in as aims. 

None of the writers discussed educational aims to determine which 
were the more valuable, but mentioned them only incidentally to 
preface a remark or explain some device or plan that they were 
supporting. 

Drill. Each of the general aims mentioned has an appropriate 
method by which it is best realized. Since training the mind to think 
was the chief goal, drill was used above all other means for reaching 
that goal. Such expressions as : " regularly exercised in spelHng, 
in pronunciation, and in all elementary studies," occur in over half 
of the articles. Much of the prominence of persistent drill as 
reported for elementary subjects was evidently due to the ordinance 
requiring all pupils of academic rank to be practised frequently in 
those studies. But after making allowance for such influence, the 
emphasis upon drill in all subjects was undoubtedly great. Those 



Regents Rep't, 1839, p. 126. 



124 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

who wished to make good grammarians drilled their pupils for that 
purpose, and the need of persistent repetition of paradigms in Latin 
and Greek was frequently pointed out. For many teachers, this 
process seemed to be the panacea for all ignorance, whether the aim 
was training the mind, forming correct habits, or filling the head with 
useful knowledge. 

Lectures. The reports indicate that there was scarcely an academy 
in which some sort of lecture method was not used. About half of 
the contributors refer directly to lectures. It seems that all subjects 
that did not lend themselves readily to drill work were taught by 
lectures, which were delivered by the principal of the academy, pro- 
fessional men living near, or any intelligent visitor. Lawyers, 
doctors, preachers, professors and others were welcomed by the 
authorities to *' hold a course of lectures." The subjects embraced 
all departments of knowledge, but the sciences especially were taught 
by lectures. Lecture table experiments were generally used in natu- 
ral philosophy, which included all the mathematical sciences, and in 
chemistry; but there is nothing said about individual experiments 
performed independently by the pupils. Illustrative materials and 
mechanical devices were used in lectures on astronomy, geography, 
geology and similar subjects. Cabinets of minerals were at times 
mentioned in this connection, and specimens of plant and animal 
life were to be found in many academies. 

Moral and religious instruction was also often carried on by the 
lecture method. The virtues of a Christian and the duties of a 
citizen were explained in this way. The frequency of these lectures 
in the reports is about one-fourth that of the scientific lectures. 
As a rule they were made a part of the " opening exercises." 

A third class of lectures were those intended to impart general 
knowledge, to help fill the mind. They dealt with all kinds of infor- 
mation not otherwise presented, such as meteors, current topics, law 
and inventions. The principles of teaching was a subject on which 
lectures were delivered. 

Incentives. The means that were used to arouse pupils to activity, 
to furnish a motive for study, were referred to in about one out of 
every ten reports. The incentive most frequently discussed was 
emulation. There was a division of opinion on the advisability of 
encouraging pupils to try to excel one another, but those who main- 
tained the affirmative side were in the majority by about five to one. 
Those on the negative side said that emulation caused enmity, dis- 
trust and other evils, and a higher motive should be found. One 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS I25 

man, probably having in mind the custom of " turning down," said 
that emulation caused too much moving about and disturbance in 
the schoolroom. Rewards, prizes and honors, which were often con- 
ferred at the close of public examinations, were a natural part of the 
system in which emulation was a leading motive. 

Other means, not so often mentioned, of inducing pupils to study 
were that the studies should be made pleasant ; some easy mode of 
instruction should be employed. These notions were also opposed 
by champions of effort, who quoted, " There is no royal road to 
learning." The way in which interest could be aroused and the work 
made pleasant was not definitely explained, except in connection with 
some device or petty method. 

Rote vs reason. One of the most frequently discussed points of 
method was the question of the relative proportions of subject matter 
that should be taught by rote and by an " appeal to the understand- 
ing." In no instance was either extreme favored, but five or six men 
came very near claiming everything for the memory method. As a 
rule it was thought that axioms, principles, definitions, theorems, 
mathematical tables, rules of grammar, paradigms, important dates 
and the like should be taught by rote. However, there is no evidence 
of any considerable attention given to memorizing poetry and literary 
gems. 

The solution of problems in mathematics and scientific truths 
were conceded to the rational method. The Secretary of the Uni- 
versity condemned the practice of teaching mathematical theorems 
by rote, and claimed that in general where " deductive processes and 
association of thought " can be used, an appeal should be made to 
the reason. But he granted that " ultimate principles, tables and 
various other useful information " which had been once intelligently 
understood should be fixed in the memory by drill.*" Since the 
memory, or rote, system of teaching is but one aspect of the process 
of drill, the prevalence of the latter practice would indicate rote 
work. But much that is expressed in the articles contained in the 
Regents Reports on this topic, is probably a discussion on theory 
rather than a statement of practice. 

Analytical method. Another method that found a place in a few 
academies was called the analytical, or inductive method ; and the 
word synthetic was once used in the same sense. It was said that 
this process would cause pupils to think for themselves, and would 
lead them to effective study by training them how to sift the prin- 

" Regents Instructions, 1845, p. 85-90. 



126 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

cipal thoughts from pages of print. Making outlines of articles 
read in the lesson assignments was one way in which this method 
was used to train pupils to analyze. In the recitation, pupils were 
asked to recite the main points in a topic, and in written work, 
abstracts of chapters or subjects were prepared. It appears that a 
decided departure was made by those who followed this method 
from the drill and memory exercises. It was mentioned, however, 
only by those teaching in strongest and most progressive academies 
of that period, notably those in Albany. 

Questions. The custom of asking questions was probably an 
essential part of every recitation, but it is mentioned as a distinct 
method something hke twenty times only in all the discussions. The 
questions printed at the close of lessons in textbooks, question books 
on certain subjects designed as an aid in reviews, and the interroga- 
tive method received attention. One academy announced a special 
interrogative system introduced by Mr Wood of Edinburgh.*^ 
Printed questions at the close of lessons were condemned by all 
who mentioned them, on the grounds that they produced a mechani- 
cal response ; but the question books were considered by some a 
valuable help. The ordinary use of questions in recitations was dis- 
regarded, and the subject came up only when the contributors wished 
to advance some new plan or device, or criticise some scheme in 
vogue. 

Devices, petty and special methods. That part of the Regents 
instructions to academies on what the reports should contain referred 
to remarks by trustees and teachers, and requested them to describe 
any unusual means of instruction that they had adopted.*- Perhaps 



*^ The details of this plan were not explained. 

■"The title under which all such remarks by school officials were printed 

was : " Schedule No. , containing extracts from the remarks submitted 

by the trustees of several academies in their reports to the Regents of the 

University, for the year on the peculiar modes of instruction adopted 

by them, and on other special matters relative to education." The latter 
clause was .'"•ot added until 1841. See Regents Reports, 1835, p. 53; 1841, 
p. 84. 

In regard to those reports, the Regents offered the following explanation : 
" The Regents, in this and in former reports, in presenting these general 
and sometimes speculative views of education, as well as occasionally criti- 
cisms or commendations of elementary books or modes of instruction, do 
not assume to assert as their own, the opinions expressed in the various 
returns selected for publication. These are given as the views of enlight- 
ened and experienced persons employed in actual instruction, which if even 
in some degree inaccurate, must have a share of utility in inviting the atten- 
tion of those engaged in the same pursuits to the consideration of topit« 
important to the best interests of society; but which, if correct, are of th- 
highest and most direct utility, in diffusing valuable information among 
those, who being practically in the business of instruction, may make an 
immediate and beneficial application of the knov.'Iedge thus communicate<_ 
See Regents Rep't, 1836, p. 6. 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS 12/ 

it was due, in part, to this invitation to communicate "peculiar modes 
of instruction " that so many devices, special systems, and petty 
methods are found in the reports. One-third of all the articles on 
method contained some plan supposed by its author to be original, 
ingenious and capable of wonderful results. One taught all history 
of the world with the important dates by a mnemonic chart. 
Another claimed to have removed all drudgery from composition 
work by a skilful arrangement and organization of materials. 
A device by which pupils could readily exchange written work, and 
correct one another's mistakes, and another for the use of maps in 
history study, were among the contrivances advanced. One man 
advocated the doctrine of " strike while the iron is hot." A part of 
his argument was that grammar, writing, rules and elementary 
subjects in general should be learned early in life. He said such 
subjects were " well adapted to the powers of the unfolding intellect; 
for the power of imitation and remembrance, upon which these 
primary studies depend, is greatest previous to the full development 
of the reflective faculties." '^^ Three or four writers approved the 
use of interlinear translations in the study of Latin, and one was 
sure that Latin could be learned correctly only by writing and speak- 
ing it. But some opposed any such easy plans for learning Latin, 
claiming that " knowledge must be dug out." 

Apparatus and equipment. Some of the many devices referred 
to above were worked out by means of special apparatus. Schenec- 
tady had a building that " combined the advantages of a private 
house and a school." ^* The rooms were circular in shape with low 



" Regents Rep't, 1843, P- I47- 

" " Schenectady Lyceum and Academy. Peculiar efforts have been made 
to adapt the building to the purposes of instruction. In this last respect it 
differs, it is believed, from every other building for academic purposes in 
this State, or rather did thus differ when first erected, for it is reported 
that other buildings within the last two or three years have been erected 
on a plan copied after the Schenectady Lyceum. In the internal arrange- 
ments an attempt has been made to combine the advantages of private 
apartments with a public schoolroom. The seats are arranged around the 
circumferences of an octagonal room, and separated by partitions, so that 
each pupil who faces the wall occupies a seat where he is liable to no inter- 
ruption, and he is at the same time immediately under the eye of and near 
his instructor, to whom he can apply at intervals for assistance, and for 
relaxation at the close of every hour. The desks of the instructors are so 
situated as to command a view of all the pupils in the room. In the prin- 
cipal room, v/hich is on the first floor of the building, there are fifty of these 
recesses; but as these are arranged around the circumference of the room, 
there is space left (whenever the occasion require the accommodation of 
more than fifty pupils in the room,) for more than 20 additional pupils. 
The location of these additional pupils between the scholars in front of 
them and the instructor in their rear, does not prevent the latter from 



128 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

partitions radiating from the center where the teacher sat. The 
pupils each occupied a separate compartment and could not see one 
another, but the teacher at the center could see all the pupils. In 
another academy there was a device for ventilation, whereby the fresh 
air was admitted through an opening under the stove and the impure 
air escaped from a window. Such an arrangement was then unusual ; 
most of the writers, who mentioned ventilation, said that the doors 
and windows were used for that purpose. 

The equipment used for general work included blackboards, maps, 
globes and slates. Blackboards were probably in common use in 
practically all the academies. Seventy-five of the articles contain 
the word " blackboard," either incidentally or especially emphasizing 
its value. One writer said he did not approve of the use of a black- 
board, because it would not secure independent work. 

Illustrative materials in the form of specimens of stones, cabinets 
of minerals, drawings, charts and diagrams were noticed, especially 
in connection with lectures on science. 

The rod and ferule, not much in evidence, are revealed in discus- 
sions of discipline, and seem to have been growing unpopular. All 
use of those aids to teaching was disclaimed by at least ten academies. 
But the opponents of this tendency did not fail to express their 
views. One cited the " Biblical injunction " as an argument against 
abolishing corporal punishment, and another said : "A state may 
indeed exist without a king, and a church without a bishop, but not 
a school without a strap or ferule."*^ These kinds of expressions. 



exercising the same inspection and care over them that he does over other 
scholars, more especially as his seat and that of his assistants are on a plat- 
form raised several feet above the level of the floor. Immediately in front 
of the platform there are benches, on which the different classes take their 
seats during their recitations and examinations ; and for the purpose of 
declamation they ascend the platform before alluded to. This room is 
lighted by seven large gothic windows, besides several small rose windows. 
It is used by the principal of the academy and his assistants, who have 
charge of the classical departments. The lower story of the lyceum, in its 
internal divisions, fitness and convenience, corresponds to the first story as 
above described. The second story is designed and used as a lecture room, 
has a platform, desk, and a sufficient number of seats to accommodate 150 
pupils. It is for the accommodation of the pupils of the young ladies' acad- 
emy of this city, as well as for those of the lyceum, during the delivery of 
lectures. The whole building has the form of an octagon, and the style of 
architecture is modern Gothic. The walls are of brick, rough cast, and in 
imitation of dark granite, and are surrounded by a battlement of eight pin- 
nacles. The belfry rising from the centre of the roof terminates in a tur- 
ret." Senate Document, 1839, No. 56, p. iio-ii. 

It is known that Lowville Academy used a similar building as early as 
1825. See Hough, Historical and Statistical Record, p. 655. 

*^ Regents Rep't, 1846, p. 143. 



CURRICULUMS AND METHODS I29 

however, were rare. Those that had dispensed with the ferule gave 
a nunil:er of other incentives that they had tried ; precept, lectures 
on morals, self-government (but in only one case in the sense of 
student self-government), Bible study, public censure and praise, 
deportment marks and written reports to parents, " merit system," 
suspension and expulsion. In one academy, each pupil who had been 
guilty of some offence was required to write an essay dealing with 
his fault and the corrective virtue. 

Miscellaneous notions. A few scattered ideas of some significance, 
but not frequent enough to indicate any considerable practice, occur 
in the reports. Some of these are thrown together here. 

One writer criticised the monitorial method, and another explained 
his practice of employing advanced students as assistants, but with 
these two exceptions, nothing was said about the monitorial system. 
Some attention was paid to teaching current events. " Ideas not 
words " was demanded, and the necessity of connecting ideas and 
words was recognized. " From the simple to the complex " was 
quoted by one man. Correlation of subjects, especially history and 
geography, was not uncommon. Reviews and examinations were 
a part of the instruction in a number of academies. What is now 
called vocational education found a few representatives among 
teachers previous to 1850, as is evidenced by the phrases : " Pre- 
pare the pupil for the business or vocation he is to follow when he 
leaves school ; fit him for life ; meet the needs of the pupil ; make 
the instruction practical." An academy in Albany was provided 
with movable seats, apparently similar to chair-desks. 

Daily routine. Enough information is furnished in the remarks 
printed by the Regents to afford an insight into the daily routine 
of the typical academy. The school day began at about 8 o'clock 
in the morning, and closed at 4 in the afternoon, with an intermission 
of an hour at noon. Reading from the Bible, prayer and sacred 
music, and at some academies lectures on a wide range of topics, 
constituted the program for the opening of the daily session. 

Conclusions 
I Incorporated academies were legally free to act independently 
in selecting their curriculums. However, after 181 7 those that 
received state aid were required to offer Latin, Greek and arithmetic ; 
and after 1827 " higher English studies," which in general were 
sciences, history or modern language, could be offered instead of 
or in addition to Latin, Greek and arithmetic. This arrangement 
5 



130 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

left the academies practically free to teach any secondary subjects 
without losing cast. Complying with an act passed in 1877, the 
Regents established a system of advanced examinations, which 
placed a number of restrictions upon accredited curriculums, but 
did not prescribe one fixed curriculum for all Regents academies. 
This situation remained about the same until the close of the century. 
The requirements for entrance to studies of secondary rank were 
in general about what is now required for entrance to a high school, 
except that until after 1853 elementary Latin was required for 
entrance to the classical departments. 

2 The freedom that academies were allowed in selecting curricu- 
lums was manifested in the wide range of subjects that they offered. 
Practically every school subject was at some period taught. During 
the middle of the nineteenth century when the number of subjects 
taught was greatest, eighty different studies appeared in the curricu- 
lums of the academies. Seventy-one subjects were introduced after 
1825 and dropped before 1879. The decrease in the number of 
subjects is partly accounted for by a synthesis and reorganization 
of subject matter. Nearly all the academies met the few require- 
ments of the law and ordinances. 

3 The wide range of subject matter offered by academies from 
1825 to 1875, and the elimination of many subjects indicate an 
experimental stage in secondary education. One of the chief services 
of the academies resulted from their freedom to experiment with 
various processes and plans, and in that way discover the ones most 
suited to secondary education in this country. The curriculums of 
our modern high schools were developed largely in academies. 

4 Methods of instruction that prevailed in academies were deter- 
mined for the most part by the faculty theory of psychology that 
was almost universally held at that time. Hence, one of the chief 
aims was to discipline the mind and to store the memory with useful 
facts. Emulation was the principal incentive, but attempts to appeal 
to a sense of duty and an intellectual interest were not lacking. Drill 
and memory work were emphasized ; but some of the better schools 
sought to develop an ability to acquire thought from the printed 
page by the method of logical analysis. The lecture method, espe- 
cially in connection with experimental and objective work in sciences, 
was used in nearly all academies. Moral and religious instruction 
was a prominent feature, and was carried on in connection with the 
"opening exercises." 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I3I 

CHAPTER VI 
Educating Teachers for the Common Schools 

How to provide an adequate supply of competent teachers for 
elementary rural and small village schools is a vital problem, which 
nearly all the states of our country are now attempting to solve. 
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, only a few of the states 
made any effort to train teachers. During the second half of that 
century, normal schools were generally established to meet the 
demand for competent teachers. Near the close of the century edu- 
cational leaders began to realize that practically all the teachers pre- 
pared in normal schools were being employed by city systems or 
secondary schools. The small elementary schools were receiving 
no direct benefit from the normal schools. This condition led to 
the problem of establishing schools for the preparation of all com- 
mon school teachers. 

At the present time, when the educators of the Nation are being 
confronted with this question, it is interesting to notice that New 
York since 1835 has supplied a large portion of her common school 
teachers by means of teacher-training departments in secondary 
schools. This was early made possible by the excellent system of 
academies that characterized the State, and the close supervision 
that the Regents exercised over them. New York is entitled to the 
claim of being the first state of this country to provide a system 
for training common school teachers. How these departments were 
established, organized and administered ; and the results they achieved 
are sketched on the following pages. 

The early academies made no special provisions or definite 
attempts to train teachers for schools of a lower grade. Such 
teachers were at first only a by-product. This instruction was inci- 
dental, unorganized, unrecognized by the State, and even unnoticed 
for a time by the academy officials themselves. With the organization 
of a permanent system of public elementary schools and the resulting 
demand for competent teachers, the academies were recognized as a 
means of meeting the growing need. With the intention of pro- 
moting the instruction of common school teachers by that means the 
state aid to academies was increased. Later the Regents organized 
teachers departments in certain selected academies; until 1849 a great 
many plans for educating teachers were advanced, and a number of 
them were tried. Since the reorganization of teachers departments in 
secondary schools in 1849, they have been continued upon a definite, 
well-organized and essentially permanent plan. The standards of 



132 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

scholarship in them have gradually advanced, and the State has 
increased its appropriations to them as the system of public educa- 
tion has grown. As the public high schools developed, the teachers 
departments were gradually shifted to them. The transfer of all 
such work in secondary schools from the Regents to the Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction in 1889 may be considered the close of 
teachers departments in academies, because very few of them found 
it profitable to continue such courses after that time. An account 
of the period previous to 1849, when the teacher-training work was 
yet in the experimental stage, will first be given ; then the second 
period of that work, when they were more permanently organized, 
from 1849 to 1889, will be described. 

First Period — Previous to 1849 

The instruction of common school teachers was considered one 
of the functions of the early academies in all parts of this country. 
The trustees of Franklin's Academy at Philadelphia, in their applica- 
tion to the common council of the city for aid, stated as one of the 
purposes of their institution: 

That a number of the poorer sort will hereby be qualified to act as school- 
masters in the country, to teach children reading, writing, arithmetic and the 
grammar of their mother tongue, and being of good morals and known 
character may be recommended from the Academy to the country schools 
for that purpose — the country suffering very much at present for want of 
good schoolmasters, and obliged frequently to employ in their schools 
vicious imported servants or concealed Papists, who by their bad examples 
and instructions often deprave the morals or corrupt the principles of the 
children under their care.* 

" The Moravian School, established in 1807 at Nazareth Hall, 
had a * special department for the preparation of teachers.' " ^ James 
B. Carter of Massachusetts opened a seminary for general instruc- 
tion, and for particular instruction of teachers.^ " The Rev. Joseph 
Emerson's seminary for young women at Byfield and Saugus, 181S- 
24, received about one thousand pupils, many of them young school 
teachers."^ "In 1830 a seminary was opened by Samuel R. Hall, 
in connection with the Phillips Academy at Andover, for the special 
preparation of teachers for the coinmon schools." ^ Chancellor 
Brown draws a general conclusion from the evidence ; " But there 
was a great lack of even moderately well-prepared teachers, and the 
academies were looked to for an improvement in this respect." ^ 



* Wickersham, History of Education in Pennsylvania, p. 60. 

* Com'r of Ed. Rep't, 1898-9, v. 2, p. 2327. 

* Ibid., p. 2264. 

* Brown, The Making of our Middle Schools, p. 254. 
'Ibid., p. 250. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I33 

The academies in the State of New York followed this general 
rule. Soon after the establishment of a state system of common 
schools in 1813, the fact that the State should prepare teachers for 
those schools was recognized. In his message to the Legislature in 
1 81 8, Governor DeWitt Clinton suggested that young men be trained 
for teachers of common schools in Lancasterian seminaries.® The 
Regents, three years later, were confident that the academies fur- 
nished the means for preparing teachers. In their report to the 
Legislature they say: 

This consideration (aid to poor but talented boys) probably induced the 
legislature to contine the annual distributions of a great part of the litera- 
ture fund, to academies ; and when it is recollected, that it is to those semi- 
naries that we must look for a supply of teachers for the common schools, 
as well as for the occasional rescue of humble merit from obscurity, the 
regents trust they shall be enabled to extend the sphere of their bounty, and 
of their usefulness, and by such additional appropriations to the literature 
fund, as the finances and resources of the state may warrant.' 

These two views, the one that teachers should be prepared in institu- 
tions especially established for that purpose, the other that the exist- 
ing academies should be used for that purpose, are typical of all 
the plans that were proposed or tried during the first half of the 
nineteenth century. DeWitt Clinton, during the ten years that he 
was Governor, consistently advocated the first in connection with his 
unsuccessful attempt to organize all elementary schools on the moni- 
torial plan.^ In 1826 he recommended a seininary for the instruc- 
tion of teachers, and in 1827 and 1828 he advocated a school in each 
county for the training of teachers." But he failed to foresee that 
the monitorial system of instruction was fundamentally wrong. The 
Legislature did not act upon his plans. The use of academies for 
that purpose, the second type of plan mentioned above, was to be 
tried first. 

Both the Regents and the Legislature were convinced that com- 
mon school teachers should be trained in the incorporated academies. 
The former in 1823 declared that the distribution of state aid to 
the academies insured " a supply of competent teachers for the com- 
mon schools." ^° A report of the literature committee of the Senate 
in 1826, refers to the lack of competent teachers, the unwillingness 



• Senate Jour., 1818, p. 6. 
' Senate Jour., 1821, p. 269. 

' Senate Jour., 1819, p. g. Charles Z. Lincoln, Messages from the Gov- 
ernors, V. 2, p. 1048; V. 3, p. 61, 116, 159, 212. 
'Ibid., V. 3, p. 116, 159, 212. 
" Senate Jour., 1823, p. 379. 



134 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

of trustees to employ good teachers, and after pointing out that 
7642 teachers are needed in the State, continues : " It is obvious 
that the suggestion of the Governor in his message,^^ respecting the 
establishment of an institution expressly for the purpose of educat- 
ing teachers, will not answer the exigencies of the case. It is entitled 
to much weight, however, as a means, in conjunction with others, 
to effect the object. But in the view which the committee have taken, 
our great reliance for nurseries of teachers must be placed on our 
colleges and academies." ^" The same year the Regents said in their 
annual report, " Teachers for common schools must generally be 
derived from the academies." ^^ The literature committee of the 
Senate the next year reported : " The colleges and academies ought 
to furnish competent instructors, and indeed to them we are indebted, 
but chiefly to the academies, for the qualified instructors now 
employed. . . . Competent teachers of common schools, must 
be provided ; the academies of the State furnish the means of making 
that provision." ^* 

The Legislatu.3 preferred this latter plan to the one proposed by 
the Governor, and passed an act in 1827 entitled, "An act to provide 
permanent funds for the annual appropriation to Common Schools, 
to increase the Literature Fund, and to promote the education of 
teachers." ^^ But the law does not specify even in a general way 
how the education of teachers was to be effected. It increased the 
literature fund by $150,000, which meant an increased annual appro- 
priation to the incorporated academies. By this means alone, the 
legislators apparently thought, the education of teachers would be 
brought about. In every other respect the law left the work of 
training teachers where it had been before. It was still voluntary, 
incidental and unorganized. 

The law of 1827 was not considered adequate and final by those 
most interested. The discussions on the subject for the next seven 
years brought out many schemes for the preparation of teachers, 
some proposing institutions especially for that purpose, and others 
depending on the academies. The Regents and State Superintendent 
held the latter view. The former, the year after the law was passed, 
reported : " The Legislature having, by the act before referred to, 
declared it to be one of their primary objects, in the great increase 



"Messages from the Governors, v. 3, p. 116. 
"Senate Jour., 1826, p. 158. 
" Senate Jour., 1826, p. 612. 
" Senate Jour., 1827, p. 226. 
" Session Acts, 1827, chap. 228. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I35 

made by them of the literature fund, ' to promote the education of 
teachers,' the Regents, equally with the Legislature, being impressed 
with a sense of the paramount importance of this great object, will 
always cooperate in promoting its speedy accomplishment." ^^ The 
superintendent's report the same year was in harmony with this 
view. He said that the law would tend to multiply the number of 
well-qualified teachers, and " encourage the academies in becoming 
nurseries of teachers." ^'^ The next year he was of the opinion that 
the " higher seminaries of learning " had to be depended upon to 
supply the 8600 district schools with teachers.^^ His reports for 
the following two years show even more emphatically that he favored 
the plan of using the academies for educating teachers.^^ 

But the advocates of special schools for teachers also agitated 
their cause during this period. Governor DeWitt Clinton in his 
message to the Legislature in 1828 advised a monitorial school for 
each county for the instruction of teachers.-" Two years later a 
petition to the Legislature from the city of Rochester stated that the 
academies were not meeting the demand for teachers, and outlined 
an elaborate system of state schools for them.^^ The petitioners 
based their conclusions upon the information received from a circu- 
lar letter sent to the town inspectors of Monroe county. Their plan 
briefly stated was: (i) The establishment of three state "semi- 
naries " for the education of teachers. These were to be conducted 
on the manual labor plan, 'with one hundred young men not less 
than 15 years of age, chosen by competitive examination, enrolled 
in each. (2) After completing the three years of the normal, the 
young men should return to their home counties and conduct a 
central model town school, where the teachers of the town would 
learn by observation. There was to be one of the latter model 
schools in each town. The states of Prussia and Saxony are men- 
tioned in this connection as examples of efficiency in training teachers. 
In addition to pointing out the advantages of the proposed system, the 
petition summed up the arguments against grafting teachers depart- 
ments upon academies. First, only a very small number of common 
school teachers were being educated in academies ; from one-fourth 
to one-tenth, probably an average of one-eighth. Second, the acad- 



^^ Senate Jour., 1828, appendix B, p. 4. 
"Assembly Jour., 1828, appendix C, p. 6. 
" Ibid., 182Q, p. 387. 

"Legislative Documents, 1830, v. i, no. 30, p. 8, 9, 10. Assembly Docu- 
ments, 1831, V. I, no. 15, p. II, 12. 
^° Messages from the Governors, v. 3, p. 212. 
** Legislative Documents, 1830, v. 4, no. .187. 



136 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

etnies were not primarily concerned with such work, and probably 
never paid any attention to the " art of teaching." Third, the expense 
of attending an academy prevented many teachers from profiting 
by study in them.^^ 

The Superintendent of Common Schools and the Regents present 
the opposite view, which in outline is : ( i ) The teachers prepared 
by the State would probably not be paid a sufficient amount by the 
trustees of the districts to justify their remaining in the profession. 
They would engage in other work, and the purpose of the State 
would be defeated. To prevent this the State would have to provide 
for their employment, which would be contrary to a democratic form 
of government.^^ (2) The State had contributed so much to build- 
ing up the academies, and was appropriating a large amount to them 
annually, so that she might expect some service from them such as 
educating teachers.-* (3) State normals would have to be paid for 
by a state tax, and people object even to a local tax for common 
schools.^* (4) The academies have failed to supply enough teachers, 
because the schools would not pay an adequate salary.-* (5) The 
academies had the advantage of well-equipped laboratories and 
libraries, and teachers attending them would be benefited by all the 
courses taught in those institutions.-^ (6) The number and location 
of the academies were such as to make them adequate for the 
purpose.^^ 

The Regents show that for two years before 1834 some of the 
academies had maintained teachers departments in which professional 
instruction was given,-*' and that year they express the advantages of 
a law authorizing them to make an additional appropriation to such 
schools.^'' 

These views were probably held by the majority of the leading 
men of the times. Governor Marcy called the attention of the 
Legislature to the necessity of training teachers, and added that 
" upon them (academies) we must, in a great measure, depend for 
competent teachers of the common schools." -^ The judgment of 
the Governor and educational leaders found expression in the law of 



" Op. cit., passim. 

"Legislative Documents, 1830, v. i, no. 31, p. 9, 10; Senate Document, 
1832, V. 2, no. 72, p. 10, II. 
"Assembly Documents, 1831, v. i, no. 15, p. 11, 12. 
"Senate Documents, 1832. v. 2, no. 72, p. 11, 12. 
"Regents Rep't, 1832, p. ii; ibid., 1833, p. 7. 
" Regents Rep't, 1834, p. 9. 
'^ Senate Jour., 1834, p, 14. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS 13^ 

1834, under which was organized the first state system for preparing 
common school teachers in this country. It reads : 

An act concerning the Literature fund. § i The revenue of the literature 
fund now in the treasury, and the excess of the annual revenue of said fund 
hereafter to be paid into the treasury, over the sum of twelve thousand dol- 
lars, or portions thereof, may be distributed by the regents of the university, 
if they shall deem it expedient, to the academies subject to their visitation, 
or a portion of them, to be expended as hereinafter mentioned. 

§ 2 The trustees of academies to which any distribution of money shall 
be made by virtue of this act, shall cause the same to be expended in edu- 
cating teachers of common schools, in such manner and under such regula- 
tions as said regents shall prescribe."* 

The organization, supervision and all details of the contemplated 
instruction was left to the Regents, who appointed a committee 
May 22, 1834,^° to draw up a plan, which was later adopted by 
them,^° for establishing teachers departments in academies. This 
plan, although used in its unmodified form but six years, is of 
importance because of its completeness and judicious provisions, 
many of which are embodied in state laws, concerning the education 
of teachers, at the present time. Its principal features were : 

1 Eight academies, one in each senatorial district, were designated 
as recipients of the special grant upon the conditions of the law. 
It was explained that if the available sum of $10,040 were distributed 
to all academies, the amount to each would be too small to be 
effective. It was also thought best to reserve $6000 of the sum for 
emergencies. 

2 Four thousand dollars was apportioned to the selected acad- 
em'ies the first year for the purchase of library books and labora- 
tory apparatus. The part of this sum given to each institution was 
to be determined by its relative needs ; the average to each would 
have been $500, but for the first year it was less. 

3 Four hundred dollars was granted annually to each of the eight 
academies, irrespective of the number of pupil-teachers enrolled or 
the length of term they were taught, which was to reimburse the 
academies for the extra expense incurred on account of the teachers 
departments. It was the judgment of the Regents that if the appro- 
priations were made the same to each, " without reference to the 
number of pupils in training," the emphasis would be placed upon 
high scholarship rather than upon numbers of pupils. 



Session Acts, 1834, chap. 241. 
Regents Rep't, 1835, p. 81. 



138 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

4 The requirements for admission to the teachers depar<tments 
were the same as those for admission to the higher Enghsh 
departments.^^ 

5 The curricukim prescribed for the proposed departments was: 
Enghsh, writing and drawing, arithmetic and bookkeeping, geography 
and general history, history of the United States, geometry, trigo- 
nometry, mensuration and surveying, natural philosophy and the 
elements of astronomy, chemistry and mineralogy, constitution of 
the United States and of the State of New York, parts of the laws 
of the State of New York, moral and intellectual philosophy, the 
principles of teaching. 

6 The time required for the completion of the course was fixed 
at three years of eight months each, because the prescribed course 
could not be learned in less time. 

7 Each of the selected schools should possess a library valued at 
not less than $200. 

8 The laboratory apparatus recommended for each department 
was valued at $309, and included the following: orrery, numerical 
frame and geometrical solids, globes, movable planisphere, tide 
dial, optical apparatus, mechanical powers, hydrostatic apparatus, 
pneumatic apparatus, themical apparatus, 100 specimens of miner- 
alogy, electrical machine, instruments to teach surveying, map of 
the United States, map of the State of New York, atlas, telescope, 
quadrant. 

9 Complete annual reports were required on the organization, 
equipment, support and progress of the departments. 

10 Those graduated from the course were to receive a diploma, 



^M^egents Instructions, 1S34, P- -4- This requirement was as follows: 
" No students, in any such academy, shall be considered scholars in the 
higher branches of English education, within the meaning of this ordinance, 
until they shall, on examination duly made, be found to have attained to 
such proficiency in the arts of reading and writing, and to have acquired 
such knowledge of the elementary rules or operations of arithmetic, com- 
monly called notation, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as 
w'ell in their compound as in their simple forms, and as well in vulgar and 
decimal fractions as in whole numbers, together with such knowledge of the 
parts of arithmetic commonh- called reduction, practice, the single rule of 
three direct, and simple interest, as is usually acquired in the medium or 
average grade of common schools in this State; and until they shall also, 
on such examination, be found to have studied so much of English grammar 
as to be able to parse correctly any common prose sentence in the English 
language, and to render into good English the common examples of bad 
grammar given in Murray's or some other like grammatical exercises; and 
shall also have studied, in the ordinary way, some book or treatise in geog- 
raphy, equal in extent to the duodecimo edition of Alorse's, Cumming's, 
Woodbridge's or Willett's geography, as now in ordinary use." 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I39 

which, however, would not be a license to teach, from the officers of 
the various academies. 

11 The eight academies selected were: first district, Erasmus 
Hall ; second district, Montgomery ; third district, Kinderhook ; 
fourth district, St Lawrence ; fifth district, Fairfield ; sixth district, 
Oxford ; seventh district, Canandaigua ; eighth district, Middlebury. 
Equipment, endowment and location were the determining factors 
in making the selection. 

12 The rate of tuition for the course was left to the discretion 
of the local authorities, but the Regents recommended that it be 
made as low as possible. 

13 It was advised that the pupils of the teachers departments be 
required to sign a statement that they intended to teach in the com- 
mon schools of New York.^- This practice was discontinued the 
next year.^^ 

The principal criticisms of the above system were : ( i ) The pay of 
common school teachers was too low to justify a young man spend- 
ing three years in preparation for such work.^* (2) The Regents 
requirements were far in excess of the legal requirements for a 
certificate to teach. ^'^ (3) An unwillingness of students to assume 
the serious obligation, which they thought was included in the pledge 
to teach.^^ It is evident that the graduates from these departments 
would have been far better qualified than the teachers then demanded 
by the common schools. However, before the work was well 
developed a change in administration was made, which probably 
did more to hinder the teacher-training work and to lead finally to 
its temporary abandonment than all causes combined. 

Governor Marcy recommended this change in the following 
words : 

The members of this Board [the Regents] are widely dispersed over the 
State, serve without compensation, and rarely assemble in the recess of the 
Legislature. There would seem to be a fitness in giving the immediate 
direction and supervision of these departments to the same authority that 
superintends the common schools."' 

The Legislature passed a law in accordance with the Governor's 
views : 

The institutions in which departments for the instruction of common 
school teachers are or shall be established, shall make to the Superintendent 



^"Regents Rep't, 1835, P- 81-110. 

''Regents Rep't, 1836, p. 15. 

" Regents Rep't, 1836, p. 94, 99. 

"' Ibid., p. loi. 

"Ibid., p. 98. 

•'Governor's Message, Assembly Jour., 1837, P- I4- 



I40 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

of Common Schools an annual report of the conditions of those depart- 
ments, in such form and containing such information as he may from time 
to time require ; and in respect to the organization and management of the 
departments and the course of study therein, the said institutions shall be 
governed by such direction as he may prescribe; and he may direct the said 
forms and direction to be printed by the state printer."' 

During the six years from the enactment of this law until all 
appropriations for teacher-training in academies ceased, the system 
was administered by three stiperintendents, Dix, Spencer and 
Young, whose principal position was Secretary of State ; and who 
did not follow the same policy in the work. The first thought it 
would 1)6 better to decrease the number of departments to four ; "" 
the second organized teachers departments in sixteen academies 
instead of eight ; *** and the third thought that the departments were 
doing no special good, and ordered the appropriations to them to 
cease.*^ Under such a vacilliating management, not always free 
from political influence, the best results could not be expected. Gov- 
ernor Seward said : " The office of inspector of common schools 
is unhappily always involved in the political organization of par- 
ties ; " *^ and previously Governor Marcy had expressed a regret that 
the common schools were not in charge of an officer especially 
qualified for that duty.*^ It is evident that the transfer of the 
teachers departments to the common school system in 1837 was not 
a wise arrangement, as it subjected them to the control of a political 
office that was frequently changing in personnel and policy. 

Soon after the eight teachers departments were established under 
the law of 1834, there was a widespread demand for an extension of 
the system or of some other additional means of preparing teachers. 
Governor Marcy said in his message to the Legislature in 1838 that 
some further provision should be made for supplying teachers for 
the common schools.** The same year the Assembly committee on 
colleges, academies and common schools reported that the system 
instituted by the Regents in 1835 should at once be sufficiently 
extended to adapt it to the " exigences of the State." *^ The Super- 
intendent the previous year favored founding eight more teachers 
departments in academies and meeting the expense from the revenue 



** Session Acts, 1837, chap. 241, par. 4. 

°*Sup't Rep'ts, 1837, P- 22; 1838, p. 22; 1839, p. 26; 1840, p. 17; 1841, p. 21, 

" Ibid., 1842, p. 16. 

■" Rep't of Sup't, 1844, p. 30. 

" Messages from the Governors, v. 3, p. 743. 

** Assembly Jour., 1837, p. 14. 

" Messages from the Governors, v. 3, p. 652. 

** Assembly Documents, 1838, po. 236, p. 8. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I4I 

of the United States deposit fund,*® which had just been received 
and devoted by the Legislature to the cause of education. He 
repeated the same opinion the next year.*^ 

It was probably in response to these demands that the Legislature 
included a clause in the appropriation act of 1838, which required 
every academy that received the sum of $700 or more a year to main- 
tain a department " for the instruction of common school teachers," 
under the direction of the Regents.*^ This provision was indefinite, 
inadequate and in every way ill advised, whether considered theoreti- 
cally or judged by its results. The Superintendent pointed out its 
chief defects the year after it was enacted: (i) It did not consider 
local needs. It might leave a large section of the country unsupplied 
with a means of instructing teachers, and multiply normal depart- 
ments in some other section. (2) It did not require the academies 
that it afifected to supply themselves with suitable equipment for 
the departments. (3) There would be no inducement for such 
schools to lower tuition rates to pupil-teachers, or to make the 
departments efficient in any way. (4) Since the appropriations for 
academies were made equal in each senatorial district regardless of 
population or the number of pupils in attendance, and the amount 
paid to the academies of some districts per pupil was much more 
than that paid to academies in other districts, where the population 
was greater and hence a larger number of academies to share the 
sum received by the district, the tendency would be to provide the 
departments where the population was sparsest and where the small- 
est number of teachers were needed. (5) The nature of the work 
done by some schools affected by the law was inconsistent with the 
education of teachers, such as the grammar school of Columbia 
College, and the New York Deaf and Dumb Institution.*^ It appears 
from the reports of the academies required by this law to train 
teachers that the measure was practically useless.^" Professor Pot- 
ter of Union College, who was appointed by the Superintendent in 
1840 as a special inspector of teacher-training departments, after 
enumerating the defects of the law of 1838 said: "It is appre- 
hended that these conditions will be found, in practice, to have 
rendered the law nearly inoperative."^^ 



"^ Sup't Rep't. 1837, p. 22, 23. 

" Ibid., 1838, p. 21, 22. 

** Session Acts, 1838, chap. 237, par. 9. 

** Sup't Rep't, 1839, p. 24, 25, 26. 

"" — See p. 146-7. 

"Sup't Rep't, 1841, p. 118. 



142 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

Although each year the Superintendents recommended changes in 
the system introduced by the Regents in 1835,^^ the plan was not 
modified until 1841.^^ The provision of 1838 did not in any way 
interfere with the original eight departments. The report of Pro- 
fessor Potter, mentioned above, and that of Mr Little,^* appointed 
for the same purpose as was Professor Potter, advised that the num- 
ber of departments be increased. 

The Regents in 1841 provided for a larger number of teachers 
departments, a change that had been urged from a number of sources 
for several years. ''^^'' They directed that $300 should be paid annually 
to each of sixteen designated academies, which should maintain a 
teachers department, as specified by the Superintendent, for six 
months of the year between May 15th and December i5th.^^ 

The requirements adopted by the Superintendent in accordance 
with this resolution were: (i) Every pupil-teacher enrolled in the 
departments was required to sign a pledge that he would teach at 
least one year after leaving the department. (2) No male pupil was 
admitted to the departments under the age of 18, and no female 
under the age of 16. (3) Practice teaching was made a required 
part of the course of study for all those enrolled in the departments ; 
and this teaching was to be done in the presence of the preceptor 
of the academy and under his direction. ^^ But two years after the 
reorganization of these departments, they were deprived of all state 
aid and state control. Those responsible for the change were con- 
sidering the introduction of some system of state normal schools, 
which had been advocated by DeWitt Clinton, and which were then 
attracting much attention. Some were in favor of state normals in 
addition to the academical departments then in operation,^* and 
others thought it would be best to invest all the resources of the 
State, donated to training teachers, in one or more state normals.^^ 

The suggestion of Governor Marcy in 1838, that county normal 
schools might be better than academical departments, ''^ was not 
acted upon ; and Governor Seward the next year said : " We 
seem at last to have ascertained the only practicable manner of 



"Sup't Rep'ts, 1837, p. 22; 1838, p. 21; 1839, p. 26; 1840, p. 17. 
"' Sup't Rep't, 1841, p. 124-27. 
"Sup't Rep't, 1838, p. 18. 
^'^ Cf. p. 140-1 ante. 

"Assembly Documents, 1842, v. i, no. 12, p. 16. 
" Hough, Historical and Statistical Record, p. 548, 549. 
"^ Sup't Rep't, 1841, p. 120, 121. Potter's Report, ibid., p. 21, 22. 
™ Messages from the Governors, v. 3, p. 652; Assembly Documents, 1844, 
no. 13s, p. 72; Sup't Rep't, 1843, p. 17. 18. 
*" Messages from the Governors, v. 3, p. 652. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I43 

introducing normal schools into our country. It is by engrafting 
that system upon our academies."" But sentiment in favor of state 
normals grew rapidly. The Superintendent (Spencer) advised that 
" one model school or more " be established in central parts of the 
State ;^^ in voicing this, he followed the view of Professor Potter 
that a state normal be maintained at Albany.®^ The report of a com- 
mittee of the assembly, 1844, declared that the previous efforts of 
the State to train teachers had been a failure,^* and outlined a plan, 
that was afterward embodied in law, for a normal school at Albany. 
One of the most pronounced opponents of the academical teachers 
departments, and an ardent advocate of state normals, was Colonel 
Young, then State Superintendent of Common Schools. He pointed 
out in what particulars the former had failed: (i) The academies 
not appointed and having received no extra reward from the State 
for educating teachers, had done as much in that respect as those 
especially designated and paid for that service. (2) The pledge 
required of pupil-teachers was unfair and useless. (3) " The great 
cause of failure seems to be that the bounty of the State is diffused 
over too great a surface."*^^ He advanced a plan for four normals 
in different parts of the State, and a central normal at Albany.®' 
\. The teachers institutes, that were begun at this period, were 
welcomed as a cheap and quick means of training instructors for the 
common schools ; and no doubt were influential in bringing about 
the abandonment of teachers departments in academies. One of the 
first institutes was held in September 1842, by F. B. Sprague, 
deputy superintendent in Fulton county, at Kingsboro.^® It was 
conducted for eight weeks in both fall and spring, and was called a 
" private normal " by the founder.®" This form of instruction became 
popular, and in the year that the state normal was established, nine- 
teen institutes were conducted, at which 1448 pupil-teachers received 
instruction.®'^ The next year it was announced that " comparatively 
a brief period of time only is necessary to supply every school dis- 
trict in the State with competent and well-qualified teachers."®^ 



"Ibid., p. 743- 

*^Sup't Rep't, 1841, p. 21, 22. 

•"Ibid., p. 121. 

** Assembly Documents, 1844, no. 135, v. 5, passim. 

''Sup't Rep't, 1843, p. 17, 18. 

" Sup't Rep't, 1844, p. 289 ff. 

*' New York District School Journal, v. 6, April 1845, p. 12. 

"Ibid., V. 5, March 1845, p. 323. 



144 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

The law establishing the state normal (1844) withdrew the state aid 
from teachers departments provided in 1834,^^ and they were no 
longer officially maintained. The regulation of 1838 was still effec- 
tive, but was disregarded by the Superintendent, and no reports 
concerning the education of teachers were any longer received from 
academies, until the reestablishment of teacher-training courses in 
them under the law of 1849. 

Results Accomplished by Teachers Departments during the First 
Period {1787-1849) 

Prior to 1835, while the instruction of teachers was incidental 
and unorganized, no records were kept of the number of teachers 
that the academies prepared ; but by indirect information it appears 
that a number of teachers was sent out by academies even during 
the early years. (i) The academies were practically the only 
schools, except the two or three colleges, at which an education 
beyond the mere rudiments could be obtained. (2) The instruction 
of common school teachers was considered one of the functions of 
academies at that time. (3) An expression of the Regents in 
1 82 1 indicates that it had been customary to consider the secondary 
schools the proper place for the instruction of teachers. They say: 
" When it is recollected, that it is to these seminaries that we must 
look for a supply of teachers for the common schools, . . . the 
Regents trust they shall be enabled to extend the sphere of their 
bounty, and their usefulness, and by such additional appropriations 
to the literature fund, as the finances and resources of the state may 
warrant." ^^ (4) After some of the academies had organized teachers 
departments, the number of pupil-teachers was reported in a few in- 
stances. The Regents reported that St Lawrence and Canandaigua 
had organized such departments, and that the former during the year 
1831 had sent out eighty teachers.''^ The total number of pupils in 
such departments that year was reported to be one hundred five,'^^ and 
the next year forty-five'^* were reported. The following table^^ con- 
tains the statistics for the first year of the eight academical depart- 
ments organized under the law of 1834. 



** Session Acts, 1844, chap. 311. 

" Senate Jour., 1820-21, p. 269. 

"Regents Rep't, 1832, p. 11. 

" Sup't Rep't, 1834, p. 18. 

"Loc. cit. 

'" Compiled from Regents Rep't, 1836, p. 92 ff. 



educating teachers for the common schools 
Table 26 



145 



Canandaigua . 
Erasmus Hall 

Fairfield 

Kinderhook . . 
Middlebury. . 
Montgomery. 

Oxford 

St Lawrence. 

Totals . . 



nECEIVED FROM 
REGENTS FOR 



Support 



5400 
400 
400 
400 

None 

None 

400 

400 



$2 400 



Equip- 
ment 



S164 
184 
3og 
286 
28s 
309 
282 
177 



$1 996 



TUITION RATE 



$4 a quarter . . . , 
1.2s a quarter. 

3 a year 

Not reported. . 
6 to S16 a year 
Not reported. . 
3 for IS weeks. 
12 a year 



PUPIL- 

TEACIIEHS 
ENROLLED 



None 
None 
None 
S 
None 

25 

66 



118 



In addition to those trained in the eight departments under the 
requirements of the Regents, table 27 shows those instructed inde- 
pendently. Even some of the schools in which the Regents had 
established a regular department reported pupil-teachers who for 
certain reasons did not enter the prescribed course. Such pupils are 
included in this table. 

Table 27^^ 

PUPIL- 
TEACHERS 
ACADEMY ENROLLED REMARKS 

Bridgewater 20 "Most of the common school teachers in this 

vicinity have attended the academy." 

Delaware 20 

Gouverneur High School .. . 46 Of the students of the last seven years hundreds 

have probably become teachers. 

Kinderhook IS These were not in the regular department. 

Lansingburg Not reported "Many students . . . stay but one quarter; some 

fitting for teachers." 
Lowville Not reported "Several of the students of the last year are now 

engaged in schools." 

Monroe 30 

Onondaga 12 

Oxford 18 " From 15 to 20 whose names are not included in 

the list of students in the department." 
Palmyra High School Not reported "We are endeavoring ... to follow the recom- 
mendation . . . for instruction of teachers." 

Rensselaer 2S 

Springville S Free tuition was granted to one pupil of each town 

in the county. 
St Lawrence 34 " Upwards of a hundred have left our school the 

past year to engage in teaching." 
Union 45 "Between forty and fifty teachers have been 

instructed in this academy the past year." 

Washington Not reported " 

Yates Co. and Female S... 25 "Some 20 or 30 have been prepared for common 

school teachers the past year." 

Total 295 



'° Compiled from Regents Rep't, 1836, p. 54 flf. 

"Washington Academy, Salem, sent an outline of their two year teachers 
course, and said, " There has been a teachers class in the academy during 
the fall term for the last four years." Regents Rep't, 1836, p. 61, 62. 



146 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



These records give a total of 413 pupil-teachers that were 
instructed by the academies during the year 1835, 118 in the regular 
departments and 295 in addition. But this list does not include those 
in schools that did not report the number of such students in num- 
bers; so the real total would be greater than 413. Detailed statistics, 
showing the results of teachers departments until they were discon- 
tinued in 1844, are presented in table 28. 

The operation of the departments required by the law of 1838 is 
indicated by the results reported the year after its enactment. 
Twelve academies the preceding year had received more than $700 
from the State, and so were required by law to maintain teachers 
departments. Two of these twelve, Canandaigua and Oxford, were 
among the eight that had been selected by the Regents in 1835, con- 
sequently they were receiving state aid for their teacher-training 
departments, and were not affected by the later law. Two more, the 
Grammar School of Columbia College, and the Grammar School of 
the University of the City of New York, did not report on that 
particular ; no notice of their delinquency was taken at the time, 
and they were evidently regarded as special institutions exempt from 
the law. Four (Albany Female Academy, Troy Female Seminary, 
Erasmus Hall, and Amenia) reported that they had instructed no 
pupil-teachers, and some of them had not organized any definite 
departments for that purpose. Ithaca made no report. The remain- 
ing three, Genesee Wesleyan, Cortland and Rochester Collegiate 
Institute reported a total of 148 pupils in the required departments.'^^ 
The corresponding totals for this class of academies for the next 
three years were 272, 281 and 163 respectively. 

Table 28 



ACADEMY 


183s 


1836 


1837 


1838 


1839 


1840 


1841 


1842 


1843 












L 



L 



L 

X 


L 

X 


L 


















L 



L 
112 


L 

X 


L 

25 


L 










A 
22 


A 
26 


A 
36 


A 
44 


L A 
SO 


A 
61 


A 
46 


A 
SO 


A 






Cortland 










L 
28 


L 
30 


A 
12 


A 

SO 


A 






















A 
19 


A 
16 


A 





























" Sup't Rep't, 1840, p. 90. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS 



147 



ACADEMY 


1835 


1836 


1837 


1838 


1839 


1840 


1841 


1842 


1843 




A 









L 















Fairfield 


A 



A 



A 
16 


A 
S3 


A 
38 


A 
S6 


A 
13 


A 
23 


A 






Franklin, Prattsburg 














A 
14 


A 
33 


A 
















A 
31 


A 

45 


A 








Genesee Wesleyan 










L 
no 


L 

282 


L 

164 


L 
78 


L 


Grammar School of Columbia 
College 










L 

X 


L 

X 


L 



L 



L 


Grammar School of Univ. of 
City of N. Y. 










L 

X 


L 

X 


L 



L 



L 
















A 
26 


A 

34 


A 








Hobart Hall Inst 














A 

25 


A 
39 


A 












L 

X 




A 

X 


A 
19 


A 










A 



A 
I 


A 
20 


A 
25 


A 
23 


A 
29 


A 
18 


A 
29 


A 








A 
5 


A 

X 


A 
34 


A 

41 


A 
10 


A 
32 


A 
35 


A 
30 


A 








A 



A 
21 


A 
12 


A 
31 


A 
127 


A 
132 


A 

25 


A 
21 


A 






Oxford 


A 

25 


A 
28 


A 
35 


A 
35 


L A 

44 


L A 

75 


L 

57 


L 

48 








Rensselaer Oswego 














A 

X 


A 
20 


A 


Rochester Col. Inst 










L 
10 




A 

X 


A 
18 


A 


Rutgers Female Inst 












L 

X 


L 
3 


L 
12 


L 




A 
66 


A 
102 


A 
96 


A 
106 


A 
104 


A 

107 


A 

52 


A 
73 


A 






Troy Female Seminary 










L 



L 



L 

57 


L 









A 
36 


A 
35 


A 
39 


A 
20 


A 
26 


A 

X 


A 
18 


A 










8 

8 

118 


8 

7 
224 


8 

8 

284 


8 

8 

374 


18 

IS 

564 


16 

13 

942 


24 

18 

597 


24 

23 

681 



















Explanation: The numbers opposite the name of an academy represent the number of pupil- 
teachers enrolled for the several years. The letter L means that the academy was required 
by the law of 1838 to maintain a teachers department; and A shows that the school was 
appointed by the Regents and received a special appropriation for training teachers. The 
fact that an academy failed to report is designated by the letter x. In some instances an 
academy was affected by the law of 1838, and was also appointed by the Regents; for example 
Canandaigua and Oxford in 1839. 



148 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



In addition to the number of pupil-teachers included in table 28,^^ 
there were some instructed in an irregular way, and not reported 
as belonging to the departments. The number of this kind the first 
year was 295. The numbers for the following years are as follows: 
1836, Kinderhook, 14; Fairfield, 40; 1840, Rochester Collegiate 
Institute, 15; 1842, Gilbertville, 70, Hamilton 13, Livingston 
County High School, 35. By adding these amounts to the totals in 
table 28, the numbers in the following summary are obtained. The 
cost of the departments to the State is also included. 

Table 29 



PUPIl -TEACHERS COST TO 
YEAR ENROLLED STATE 

ISJ5 413 S4 306«" 

i^3b 278 3 200 

1837 284 3 200 

i''^38 374 3 200 



PUPIL-TEACHERS COST TO 

YEAR ENROLLED STATE 

1S39 564 $3 200 

1840 957 3 200 

1841 597 4 800 

1842 799 4 800 



The appropriation was withheld from the sixteen appointed 
academies in 1843,*^ ^^^ '^'O official reports on teachers departments 
were made for that year nor for the years following until 1850. A 
few schools^- were still required under the provision of 1838 to 
maintain such departments, but the law was inoperative after 1842. 
However, the academies continued to educate teachers for the com- 
mon schools. Evidence of this is found in the incidental references 
that occur in the reports of various academies to the Regents. From 
such information it appears that nineteen were continuing their 
teacher-training work the year they were abandoned by the State. 
These were :*^ Delaware : "A large and increasins: number of students 



'"Owing to different interpretations of the reports from the academies, 
there are certain discrepancies in the statistics published hy the Regents and 
the State Superintendents ; e. g. the Regents Report, 1837, p. 8, gives a total 
of 228 pupil-teachers for the past year; and the Superintendent's Annual 
Report, 1841, p. 19, 20, gives 218 such pupils. The data furnished by indi- 
vidual academies was often indefinite: e. g. Kinderhook in 1842 (Superin- 
tendent's Report, 1842, p. 113 ff.) reported "15 or 20" pupil-teachers. Cf. 
Oxford, Union, and Yates County and Female Seminary, p. 145. 

The data from which table 28 was compiled are recorded in the following 
reports: Regents, 1S36, p. 92-104. Regents, 1837, p. 116-24. Superintend- 
ent's 1838, p. 109. Superintendent's 1839, P- 132-43- Superintendent's, 1840, 
p. 90. Superintendent's, 1841, p. 95. Superintendent's, 1842, p. 1 13-31. 
Regents, 1843, p. 198. 

^"$7200 was appropriated for this year, but only a part of it was dis- 
tributed. 

** Sup't Rep't, 1844, p. 30; Regents Rep't, 1850, p. 15. 

""These numbers were: 1844, 6; 1845, 4; 1846, 3; 1847, 4; 1848, 4; 1849, 3- 

■^Regents Rep't, 1844, p. 138-52; also p. 129. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I49 

are prepared in this institution, every year, to become teachers of 
common schools." Delaware Literary Institute : " Over seventy 
teachers we have sent out during the year." Kinderhook : " The 
number of this description (teachers of common schools) in the 
academy during the past year, has been quite as large as usual." 
Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary : " During the last two years, about 
eighty have so far completed the course, as to receive the license of 
the county superintendent of common schools to teach." Kingsboro : 
A normal school of two terms, two months each, was held. " Most 
of them (pupil-teachers) are now employed in teaching, to the great 
satisfaction of their patrons and pupils." Alfred : " Between fifty 
and sixty scholars who attended the last fall term are known to be 
engaged in teaching." Franklin : " There have been about 40 indi- 
viduals who have been engaged as teachers in our common schools, 
who during a part of that year have been members of this insti- 
tution." Thirteen (Hempstead, Kinderhook, Fairfield. Black 
River, Cherry-Valley, Clinton, DeLancey, Hamilton, Oneida, 
Oxford, Canandaigua, Onondaga and Albion) reported that they 
were using a textbook in the " principles of teaching." One of the 
latter (Kinderhook) is one of the first seven mentioned; so counting 
it but once, the total is nineteen. An indication of the extent of 
teacher-training during the period when no systematic reports were 
made, is afiforded by the data published by the Regents on the text- 
books used in the academies. The number of academies that were 
using a text in the " principles of teaching " was as indicated by the 
figures in the table below. 

Table 30 

NO. OF 
YEAR ACADEMIES AUTHORITY 

1843 14'^ Regents Rep't, 1844, p. 129 

1844 9 Ibid., 184s, p. 138 

184s 12 Ibid., 1846, p. 139 

1846 10 Ibid., 1847, p. 139 

1847 10 Ibid., 1848, p. 155 

1848 9 Ibid., 1849, p. 154 

1849 II Ibid., 1850, p. 184 

The number of pupil-teachers enrolled in the academies using a 
textbook in the principles of teaching, as well as the number in the 
other academies, can not be ascertained. But the academies were 
probably instructing as many common school teachers as they had 
done prior to 1843 when they received state aid for that work. This 
inference is supported by the additional facts that the normal at 
Albany was supplying fewer than two hundred teachers a year^° to 

"In the same report (p. 15) this number is given as thirteen. 
" New York District School Journal, 9 : 182. 



\ 



150 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

the schools of the State, whereas more than two thousand recruits 
were needed each year ; and that the teachers institutes were Hmited 
in their scope and influence. The only other agency for providing 
common school teachers was the academies, and the extent of their 
service in this particular is not fully represented by the statistical 
records, which usually show only the number of pupils enrolled in 
the special teachers departments.*® 

Second Period — 1849 to i88p 

Previous to 1849 the State pursued no definite well-established 
policy in regard to the training of teachers in secondary schools. 
Whatever was done was of an experimental character. The law 
was changed every few years to test in practice some new plan of 
X- maintaining teachers departments in academies. But with the 
reestablishment of those departments in 1849 on a broader and more 
permanent basis, the State proceeded with more confidence and 
decision. The discussions, criticisms and petitions that characterized 
the earlier period for the most part disappeared. The changes that 
were made in the organization and administration of the teachers 
departments during this second period were designed to make them 
more effective, not to limit their influence or to abolish them. They 
have been maintained continuously from their reestablishment to the 
present time. 

Although some were of the opinion that the normal at Albany 
and teachers institutes were sufficient to supply the common schools 
with go'od teachers,*^ others recognized the error of this view. They 
foresaw that a normal school alone would not supply teachers in 
sufficient number to meet the demand. As early as 1826 the litera- 
ture committee of the Senate pointed out the impossibility of train- 
ing the necessary number of teachers in the normal then advocated 
by Governor DeWitt Clinton.** The year the State Normal School 
was established at Albany, a number of men called attention to the 
limitation of such schools. F. B. Sprague, deputy superintendent 



"Pupil-teachers in the teachers departments in 1835 were 118; those not 
in the departments, 295. As a rule, only the former number is given in the 
reports. 

" The State Normal School. " In conjunction with the establishment of 
teachers institutes in the several counties, and the efiforts of the county and 
town superintendents, we are satisfied that comparatively a brief period of 
time only is necessary to supply every school-district in the State with com- 
petent and well qualified teachers." New York District School Journal, 
5 '323. 

* Senate Jour., 1826, p. 158. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I5I 

of Fulton county, who conducted the first county institute, reported: 
" Let the bounty of the State be bestowed upon these schools [teach- 
ers institutes] rather than upon our colleges and academies, and I 
might add to the list the contemplated state normal schools. The 
two former have never fulfilled the expectations of the friends of 
universal education, particularly as it regards qualifying teachers of 
common schools, and the latter will fail of accomplishing the great 
end in view, as they can not be numerous enough to meet the wants 
of the community. I would inquire h'ow many of the 20,000 differ- 
ent persons, male and female, actually engaged in teaching in this 
State every year, could be 'benefitted by three or four state normal 
schools ? "^^'^ 

The report of the committee of the Assembly on colleges, acad- 
emies and common schools the same year, which drew up the plans 
for the normal at Albany, warned the people not to expect too much 
of the new institution. " The committee do not indulge an expecta- 
tion that an adequate supply of well-trained teachers for our schools 
can be furnished in a very brief period; this, whenever undertaken, 
and under the most favorable auspices, must be the slow work of 
years." ^^ 

The records of the state normal school for the first few years 
after its establishment bear out these prophecies. During the first three 
years of its operation, 254 students were graduated. Of this number 
232 taught in the common schools of the State ; 9 became teachers in 
academies or select schools; the other 13 did not teach after leaving 
the school. In addition to these, the school had furnished 210 
undergraduate students as teachers of common schools in the State, 
and was instructing 200 pupils at the time the report was made.^° 
At the end of five years, 952 individuals had been enrolled at the 
school, and 350 had been graduated.®^ Assuming that all those 
enrolled became teachers, the number would still fall below an 
average of 200 a year, which was a striking contrast to the 20,000 
teachers required for the schools. The academies before the normal 
school was established had been instructing in their teacher-training 
departments from 600 to 900 teachers a year. These numbers 
include those that returned from year to year, so the actual number 
of individuals was somewhat less, but was far greater than the num- 
ber instructed at the normal. Many others not enrolled in normal 



**oSup't Rep't, 1844, p. 292. 

*' Assembly Documents, 1844, v. 5, no. 135, p. 72. 
""New York District School Journal, 1848, 97-8. 
"Ibid., 9:182. 



1^2 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NE\V YORK 

departments probably taught after leaving the academies. In the 
matter of expense, the normal did not appear to be so efficient as the 
teachers departments in academies. The former received $10,000^^ a 
year fr'om the State, or about $50 for each pupil instructed. The 
latter never received more than $4800 a year from the State, or about 
$6 for each pupil instructed. 

Such facts as these probaWy did not escape the notice of legis- 
lators and others interested in education. The need of further 
means of educating teachers vi'as recognized in 1849 by a law^, 
reestablishing teachers departments in academies for a period of tw^o 
years, at the end of which time a similar provision was made, but 
making the departments permanent instead of for a period of years. 
The former act read as follows : 

The treasurer shall pay, on the warrant of the Comptroller, out of the 
income of the United States deposit or literature fund, not otherwise appro- 
priated, to the trustees of one or more academies, as the Regents of the 
University may designate, in each county in this State, the sum of two hun- 
dred and fifty dollars per year for the years 1850 and 1851, provided such 
academy or academies shall have instructed in the science of common school 
teaching for at least four months during each of said years at least twenty 
individuals, but no such one county shall receive a larger sum than two 
hundred and fifty dollars.*' 

It is of importance to notice that this law restored the administrative 
control of the teachers departments to the Regents, under whose 
authority they had been from their establishment in 1834 until an 
act of 1837 had placed them in charge of the Superintendent of 
Common Schools. The Regents then remained in administrative 
control of them until 1889. Other features of the law were: (i) 
$250 was paid annually to every acadeiny selected; (2) to receive 
this grant an academy, after having been selected by the Regents, 
was required to meet two definite conditions: to instruct a class of 
not fewer than twenty pupils in the " science of common school 
teaching," and to continue that instruction for at least four months ; 

(3) if two or more academies were appointed in the same county, 
the total sum appropriated to all of them should not exceed $250 ; 

(4) the law was limited to a period of two years, after which time its 
provisions would n'o longer be effective. 

The Regents, acting under the authority conferred upon them by 
the act, adopted the following rules in regard to the teachers depart- 
ments in the selected academies : ( i ) No more than one academy 



*^ Session Acts, 1844, chap. 311. 

'^Session Acts, 1849, chap. 174, sec. 2. The title of the act is: "An act 
making appropriations for the support of common schools for the years 1849 
and 1850." 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I53 

would be appointed in any one county. Two reasons were given 
for this decision. It was thought that if a division of the funds 
given to a county were made, and the pupil-teachers of a county 
distributed to several schools, the departments thus organized wtould 
be too small and weak to be effective, and that the " object to be 
attained would be altogether considered a secondary one." It was 
also the opini'on of the Regents that the best academies, which would 
be most adequately fitted to carry on the proposed departments, 
would not be willing to instruct a number of students, even though a 
small number of ten or less, for less than the full amount allowed to 
a county. (2) The curriculum was prescribed only in a general 
way. All the elementary subjects were included, and as many 
advanced subjects as could possibly be taught were recommended. 
It was suggested that the science of common school teaching required 
by law might be taught by lectures, by observation, or by prac- 
tice teaching, as the local authorities might think best. (3) Pupils 
enrolled in the departments were to be instructed free of charge for 
the four months of the course. (4) All those who received this free 
instruction were required to sign a pledge that they intended to teach 
a reasonable time in the common schools of the State. (5) The 
Regents advised that no female pupil under the age of 14, and no 
male under the age of 16 be admitted to the departments. (6) The 
law did not require the four months specified to be four consecutive 
months, but the Regents urged the academies to avoid dividing the 
term when possible. (7) The question of employing an additional 
teacher for the department was left to the decision of the local 
authorities.®* 

Forty-four®^ academies, representing the same number of 
counties, were appointed to receive grants for maintaining teachers 
departments as the law provided. The principal consideration in 
making the choice among the schools that applied was the ability 
of the academy " to perform the required duty." In case two 
academies in the same county seemed equally well adapted for train- 
ing teachers, preference was given to the one that was deprived of 
its expected appropriation in 1844.®® 

A comparison of these requirements with those issued by the 
Regents in 1835 shows a marked difference. The latter were inten- 
sive in character, and aimed to supply a limited number of teachers 
especially well qualified. The former were of an extensive kind. 



'* Regents Rep't, 1850, p. 14, 15, 16. 

"Increased later to 45. Regents Rep't, 1851, p. 215, 216. 

*' Regents Rep't, 1850, p. 15, 17, 18. 



154 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

which sought to reach a relatively large number of teachers, even at 
the risk of preparing them less thoroughly. This change of policy 
was probably due to the criticism of the earlier teachers departments, 
and to the fact that a state normal meanwhile had been established 
to afford an opportunity to teachers for a liberal professional 
training. The literature committee of the Senate (1851) was of the 
opinion that the normal school was to give special training, and that 
the academies should instruct the great majority of teachers.^^ So 
the Legislature and the Regents were probably reflecting the opinion 
of the majority when they planned an extensive rather than an 
intensive system of teacher-training. 

The academies appointed under this provision by the Regents were 
required to report the following particulars : ( i ) The names and 
ages of all pupils; (2) the exact number of weeks instruction was 
given; (3) whether it was free or not; (4) whether the pupils had 
signed the pledge ; (5) whether an additional teacher was employed on 
account of the teacher-training work; (6) whether pupil-teachers 
were taught with the other pupils of the school; (7) whether the 
term of instruction was continuous.^^ 

After the first year's report of the result of this system of teachers 
classes, the literature committee of the Senate stated that the work 
of the departments had been highly gratifying; and recommended 
that they be continued, but with a few changes in their organiza- 
tion,^® which the results of the first year of their operation showed 
were desirable. It was advised that the sum of $12.50 be allowed 
for the instruction of each pupil-teacher for four months, and that 
the Regents be given authority to " allot the monies appropriated 
as the merits of each case may appear to them to deserve."^ The 
previous year many schools appointed had done what they could to 
comply with the law, that they instruct at least twenty pupils for not 
less than four months of the year, but had failed in some particular. 
The Regents thought these schools should not be compelled to lose all 
their appropriations for instructing teachers because they had not 
complied with some of the conditions. Upon the recommendations of 
the Regents and the literature committee,^ the Legislature author- 
ized the Regents to use their own judgment in compensating 
academies that had instructed teachers, but had not complied with 



" Senate Documents, 1851, v. 9, no. 58, p. 13. 
•'Ibid., p. 3- 

" Senate Document, 1851, v. 2, no. 98 passim. 
^ Senate Document, 1851, v. 2, no. 58, passim. 
' Ibid., passim. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS 1 55 

the law so as to deserve the maximum amount of $250.^ But this 
irregularity of some academies had a more important result. It 
led to the recommendation of the literature committee of the 
Senate for a change in the teacher-training work, as mentioned 
above, and resulted in the passage of the following act which made 
the recommendation effective : 

The Treasurer shall pay yearly, on the warrant of the Comptroller, out 
of the income of the United States deposit or literature fund, not otherwise 
appropriated, to the trustees of one or more academies in each county of the 
State, as the Regents of the University shall designate, the sum of twelve 
dollars and fifty cents for each scholar who shall have been instructed in such 
academy during at least four full calendar months in the science of common 
school teaching.* 

This law differs from the previous provision in two respects. It 
is continuous in its effect, as indicated by the word "yearly," whereas 
the act of 1849 niade appropriations for two years only. The sum of 
$12.50 is granted for each pupil instructed, instead of $250 for 
twenty or more pupils. The Regents also made several changes in 
their requirements, and added some rules to meet the new conditions. 
They appointed academies with the understanding that no school 
would receive pay for more than twenty pupils, or a total sum of 
$250. The age limits for entrance requirements was raised from 16 
to 18 for males and from 14 to 16 for females.'' 

Since the instruction of teachers was voluntary on the part of the 
academies, and the Regents could not require them to accept an 
appointment and had no means of knowing what academies wished 
to undertake the work, the initiative in the matter was left to the 
academies themselves, as it had been previously. All schools that 
sought an appointment sent an application to the Regents, who 
selected certain schools out of those applying. It was the intention 
to distribute the opportunities for instruction of this kind to teachers 
evenly throughout the State,® but on account of an equal number of 
applications being sent from the various counties, this was not pos- 
sible. In 1852, no application was received from nine counties ; one 
was received from each of fourteen counties; two from each of 
twenty-one counties; and from three to five from each of fifteen 
counties.^ The corresponding appointments were : fourteen acad- 



^ Session Acts, 195 1, chap. 536, sec. 5. 

* Ibid., sec. 4. 

" Regents Rep't, 1852, p. 20. 

* The laws specify that appointments are to be made to academies in eadi 
county of the State. 

' Regents Rep't, 1852, p. 17, 18, 19, 20. 



156 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

emies in fourteen counties ; seventy-two academies in thirty-six 
counties ; * and later Elmira Academy, in Chemung county,^ making 
the total for the year eighty-seven. 

The tendency at this time to regard the academies as the proper 
means for instructing teachers is indicated by a report of the litera- 
ture committee of the Senate on a number of petitions to the Legis- 
lature from Washington, Warren and Saratoga counties asking that 
appropriations be made for union teachers institutes under the law 
of 1847. Among the reasons that the committee gave that the 
requests should be denied, the principal one was the following : " The 
provisions of chap. 536 of the Laws of 1851, appropriating to the 
trustees of such academies as the Regents of the University shall 
designate, the sum of twelve dollars and fifty cents for each scholar 
who shall have been instructed therein for a period of four months, 
in the science of common school teaching, are sufficiently ample for 
all the purposes in such act contemplated, and have virtually super- 
ceded any imaginable necessity for the existence or endowment of 
teachers' institutes." ^° 

The academies found it difficult to obey that part of the law that 
required them to instruct teachers four months. The Regents 
decided that since nearly all the academies divided the year into four 
terms, and found it difficult to rearrange their courses, fourteen or 
fifteen weeks would constitute the four months so far as the spirit 
of the law was concerned." This decision was evoked by inquiries 
from many of the schools in regard to the exact meaning of the term 
" four months." ^^ The second form of the law used the expression 
" four full calendar months," and the Regents then refused to accept 
any shorter period as fulfilling the law.^^ The Fairfield Academy 
petitioned the Legislature that the time be reduced to fourteen weeks 
" in order to accommodate the arrangement of the trustees as to the 
length of their academic term." ^* The committee of the Assembly 
on colleges, academies and common schools to which the petition 
was referred, in making its report called attention to the difficulty 
that had been experienced in carrying out the provision in question. 
However, it was thought that if any change was to be made it should 
apply to all academies alike. The committee advised the Assembly 



*Ibid., p. 18. 

*Ibid., p. 21. 

*" Senate Documents, 1852, v. 2, no. 82, p. 2. 

"■ Ibid., p. 4. 

" Regents Rep't, 185 1, p. 220. 

"Regents Rep't, 1852, p. 21. 

"Assembly Documents, 1852, no. 63, p. i. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS 1^7 

that the petition be not granted/" In spite of this unfavorable 
report, the Legislature amended the act by substituting " one-third 
of the academic year " for " four full calendar months." The amount 
paid for each student was changed from $12.50 to $10.^® 

The following year (1853) the law was modified in two important 
respects: (i) The sum of $18,000 was appropriated definitely for 
" instruction of common school teachers in the academies designated 
by the Regents of the University." ^^ Previous to this time only 
surplus funds had been used for this purpose. (2) No academy 
was to be paid for more than twenty-five pupils.^^ The new pro- 
vision also specified that the pupil-teachers be pledged to teach, and 
that the trustees of the several academies be required to report to the 
Regents; but in these two particulars the law was only repeating 
what the Regents had always required.^^ With the exception of 
two minor modifications, no changes were made in the law under 
which the Regents administered the teachers classes in academies 
for a period of twenty years. These modifications were passed in 
1855,2° when the maximum number of students claimed by any one 
academy was reduced from twenty-five to twenty, although the 
Regents retained the authority to reduce the number, below twenty ; 
and in 1864, when the Regents were given permission to use $3000 
of the whole amount appropriated for the instruction of teachers to 
pay the expenses of maintaining in the academies, selected courses 
in physiology and the laws of health.^^ However, the latter pro- 
vision was never put into operation, and it was not until 1885 that 
instruction in physiology and hygiene was made a part of the pre- 
scribed course in teachers classes. ^^ 

The ordinance of the Regents in regard to teachers classes 
remained practically unchanged. ^^ The appointments for the year 
1853 were of two kinds, absolute and provisional. All academies 
that received an absolute appointment were paid for their teachers 
classes first; then those with provisional appointments were paid if 
the funds were sufficient. Ninety of the former and fourteen of 
the latter were made for the year.^* Three years later, out of 119 



" Assembly Documents, 1852, v. 2, no. 63, p. 2, 3. 

" Session Acts, 1852, chap. 235. 

" Session Acts, 1853, chap. 219. 

" Session Acts, 1853, chap. 402. 

"Senate Documents, 1851, v. 2, no. 58, p. 3. 

*° Session Acts, 1855, chap. 410. 

^ Session Acts, 1864, chap. 556. 

'"Regents Rep't, 1885, p. 20. 

"Regents Instructions, 1853, p. 117. 

•* Regents Instructions, 1853, p. 117, 



158 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

applications from 48 of the 59 counties of the State, 113 appoint- 
ments were made, and the number of pupils allowed to each academy 
was limited to 16. A large number of institutions was selected in 
order to distribute opportunities for instruction to teachers as widely 
as possible; and as a result it was necessary to limit the number of 
pupils in each so that the money appropriated would be sufficient.^^ 

The ordinances continued to be modified in some of their details 
from year to year. In 1857 the number of classes was reduced to 
90, and a more definite course of study adopted.^® The course con- 
sisted of reading and orthography, writing, arithmetic, English gram- 
mar and geography. Any student who was proficient in some of 
these subjects could elect one or two of the following: algebra, 
geometry, natural history, natural philosophy, history of the United 
States, science of government, physiology. All pupils were required 
to study the theory and practice of teaching and to devote most of 
their time to elementary subjects, those named in the first group. ^^ 
By the year 1882, two of the subjects of the second group had been 
transferred to the first ; otherwise the curriculum remained the 
same.^* 

The rules for -the admission of students to the teachers classes that 
were in force in 1864 will serve to illustrate the requirements in this 
respect for nearly the whole period. ( i ) " Pupils must be selected 
by the joint action of the trustees and principal of the academy." 

(2) The minimum age for males was 18, and for females 16. 

(3) Their entrance examination should indicate their ability to 
qualify for , teacher's certificate after pursuing the subjects of the 
teachers class. (4) " They should be residents of the county in 
which the academy is situated, and fairly distributed among the 
several towns." (5) They were required to pledge themselves to 
teach for a reasonable time.^^ 

In 1873 the annual appropriation for teachers classes was increased 
from $18,000 to $30,000, the amount allowed to academies for each 
pupil-teacher was raised from $10 to $15, and the period of instruc- 
tion was made thirteen weeks instead of one-third of the academic 
year. Instruction for not less than ten and not more than twenty 
weeks was paid for at the same rate.^° Such changes had been 



Regents Rep't, 1856, p. 103, 104. 

Regents Rep't, 1857, p. 17, 18. 

Manual of the Regents of the University, 1864, p. 104, 105. 
'University Manual, 1882, p. 168. 

' Manual of the Regents of the University, 1864, p. 103. 
• Session Acts, 1873, chap. 642, sec. 3. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I59 

previously suggested,^^ and the next year the Regents explained 
the necessity for increasing the sum paid for each pupil instructed 
ill the teachers classes. " For several years past, applications from 
academies for appointment under this law (of 1855) have not been 
quite sufficient to exhaust the appropriation. The sum to be paid 
has not been equal to the rates of tuition established in some acad- 
emies, in the subjects embraced in the prescribed course, and pro- 
vision for the most efficient instruction has, in many instances, been 
regarded as a burden to be avoided, rather than a privilege to be 
sought." ^- 

The increased appropriation provided by this act was based upon 
a fractional mill tax for the support of secondary schools, ^^ which 
was repealed in 1874; so that only the $18,000 was available after 
the first year that the increased appropriation was made. This was 
true until 1877 when a new law was enacted. The academies 
appointed to instruct teachers classes under the revised law were 
paid one dollar a week for each pupil enrolled in the class, but the 
class was not to continue less than ten weeks, or it may continue 
longer at the discretion of the Regents provided that all the instruc- 
tion should be in one academic term. Not fewer than ten nor more 
than twenty-five pupils could be included in any one class. The 
amount of $30,000 a year was again provided, and in other respects 
the law was similar to the preceding one.'* 

Two years later the source of revenue again failed. Losses 
occurred in the investment of the United States deposit fund, which 
according to law were made up from the income of the fund.^^ The 
amount paid for instructing the teachers classes dropped from 
$30,021 86 in 1878 to $17,107" in 1879, and for 1880 and 1881 it 
vyas $11,645,^® and $3669^^ respectively. This financial impediment 
was obviated by the Legislature in 1881.**^ 

The following year, the teachers classes were reorganized and 
many improvements were instituted. The Regents recommended 
to the Legislature that a system of supervision be established, and 



" Regents Rep't, 1869, p. 742. 
"' Regents Rep't, 1874, P- xv. 
"" Session Acts, 1872, chap. 736. 
'■* Session Acts, 1877, chap. 425. 
'" Regents Report, 1879, p. x, 458. 
'* Regents Rep't, 1879, p. x, 458. 
"Ibid., 1880. 
"Ibid., 1881, p. 461. 
- Ibid., 1882, p. 260. 
" Session Acts, 1881, chap. i. 



l6o THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

that the classes be placed under the school commissioners in whose 
districts they were situated." The Legislature included both of 
these features in the law passed that year, and also specified that all 
pupils who completed the course arranged by the Regents and who 
passed the prescribed examinations should be granted a testimonial 
" which, when indorsed by any school commissioner, shall constitute 
a certificate of qualification and a license to teach in the common 
schools of his district for a period of one year from the date of such 
indorsement." ^^ 

In compliance with the law the Regents appointed an inspector, 
Dr A. B. Watkins, for teachers classes,*^ and added the following 
requirements : ( i ) Pupils admitted to the classes were required 
to pass the Regents preliminary examination, either before entering 
the course or before its close; (2) the number of pupils multiplied 
by the number of weeks of instruction should not exceed 250, but 
the number of weeks should not exceed thirteen; (3) the teachers 
class was to be organized separately, and to be instructed as a class 
at least one and one-half full hours each day; (4) the State would 
pay only for those members who had passed the entrance examina- 
tion and the formal examination required at the close of the course; 
(5) it was necessary to notif> the Regents of the organization of a 
class, and to make a detailed report within two weeks after the 
close of the course; (6) the curriculum was not changed, but was 
described in detail and much more emphasis was placed upon method 
of teaching.^* It was objected by some principals that the admission 
standards established at this time were higher than the requirements 
for a teacher's certificate in many sections of the State, and that many 
pupils would be deprived of the benefit of the classes on that 
account.*^ 

Not many changes were made in the organization and administra- 
tion of teachers classes during the next seven years, at the end of 
which time they were transferred to the supervision of the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction. Instruction in physiology and 
hygiene, with special reference to the effect of alcoholic drink upon 
the human system, was added to the curriculum of the teachers 
classes in 1885, because such subjects had been made a part of the 



■" Regents Rep't, 1882, p. xxiii, xxiv. 
" Session Acts, 1882, chap. 31S. 
** Regents Rep't, 1883, p. xxii. 
" Rcpfents Rep't, 1883, p. 166-80. 
" Regents Rep't, 1883, p. 403-16. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS l6l 

course of study in common schools.*^ Beginning with the same 
year, each school commissioner was instructed to report, among 
other items, in what way he gave credit toward a license to teach 
for work done in teachers classes. The commissioners differed 
widely in their attitude toward those who held testimonials from 
the Regents. They were required to specify whether they indorsed 
the testimonials, if further examination was demanded of the candi- 
date, if credit was given on the subjects pursued at the academies, 
or whether some other plan was adopted.'*^ 

It was the plan of certification in the law of 1882 that was a 
cause of a lack of harmony between the two administrative systems 
of the State, and led to the discontinuance of granting testimonials. 
An attempt was made to improve them by specifying the subjects 
the bearer had studied and the grades received.*^ But when a uni- 
form system of certifying teachers was adopted by the Superintend- 
ent, the testimonials were of no value and were discontinued.*^ 

At a meeting of the Association of Academic Principals held at 
Syracuse 1888, the following resolution in regard to the instruction 
of teachers was adopted by a unanimous vote : 

Resolved, That as the licensing of teachers has been placed in the hands 
of the Superintendent of Public Instruction ever since our school sj-stem 
was organized, and as it is desirable that the teachers classes should be 
part of a symmetrical system for the training of teachers, which system 
should include the normal schools, and be in consonance with the uniform 
examinations, we think that the management of the teachers classes should 
be transferred to the Department of Public Instruction."" 

Superintendent Draper gave a nuinber of reasons for approving 
the change as advocated by the principals,^^ and the Regents adopted 
the above resolution verbatim. ^^ As a result of these demands, 
the Legislature passed an act transferring the administration of 
teachers classes from the Regents to the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction.^^ 



*" Ibid., 1885, p. 20. Session Acts, 1884, chap. 30. 

*' Regents Rep't, 1885, p. 38. 

'" Ibid., 1S86, p. 33, 34. 

'* Regents Rep't, 1889, p. 826. 

'°Sup't Rep't, 1889, p. 42. 

" Ibid., p. 42, 43, 44, 45, 140, 141. 

" Regents Rep't, 1890, p. 26. 

" Session Acts, 1889, chap. 137. For an account of the teacher-training 
system in secondary schools of New York since 1889 see Giflford, W. J., The 
History of New York High Schools. 



l62 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

Results Accomplished, Second Period — 
i84p-i88p 
a Statistical 
A somewhat detailed statement of the results of the first year's 
work in instructing teachers after the law of 1849 reestablished 
teachers classes in academies, will serve to indicate what was accom- 
plished during the first part of the period. Reports were received 
from 42 of the 45 academies that had been appointed. The number 
of pupil-teachers instructed was 949, males 367, females 582. The 
males were from 16 to 21 years of age, the females from 15 to 23. 
All gave the required pledge except the pupils of one school where 
the principal overlooked the ordinance, but he vouched for the sin- 
cerity of the pupils and stated that at the time of the report all of 
them were either teaching or were students of his school. Addi- 
tional teachers were engaged in 16 academies of the 42 reporting. 
The principal devoted extra time in nearly all in instructing the 
class. The term of instruction was continuous for 627 pupils, and 
otherwise for 289 ; one academy did not report this item. The irregu- 
larity in the term of instruction is shown in the fact that 17 acad- 
emies taught 20 or more pupils for 4 months; 13 taught 20 or more 
pupils for 15 weeks and a smaller number for 16 weeks or longer; 
the remaining 12 schools were irregular in various ways; the term 
was too short, the number of pupils was too small, or the term was 
distributed in two years.^* 



"Senate Documents, 1851, v. 2, no. 58, p. 4, 5, 6, 7. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS 



163 



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164 the academy system of the state of new york 

Table 32 

Statistics of teachers classes in academies, including academic departments 
of union schools, from 1849 to 1889 



ANNUAL ENROLMENT 



Male 



Female 



Total 



NO. OF 

CLASSES 
REPOSTING 



COST 
TO THE 

STATE 



SCHOOL 

POPULATION 

OF THE 

STATE56 



1850 
I85I 
1852 
1853 
1854 
185s 
1856 

l8S7 
1858 
1859 
i860 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 
186s 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
187s 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
18S0 
1881 
1882 
1883 
1884 
l88s 



367 
337 
533 
S08 
706 
590 
524 
532 
601 
711 
622 
595 
494 
449 
363 
297 
363 
406 
463 
564 
503 
S82 
592 
551 
614 
572 
608 
811 
880 
863 
32O 
128 
553 
433 
517 
711 
748 
? 
906 
883 



582 
663 
051 
062 
284 
213 
153 
077 
096 
093 
136 
117 
272 
328 
323 
301 
122 
039 
026 
021 
991 
969 
002 
IIO 

400 

133 

433 
621 
551 

693 
193 
187 
178 
358 
635 
78S 
? 
352 
624 



949 
000 
584 
570 
990 
803 
677 
609 
697 
804 
758 
712 
766 
777 
686 
598 
485 
445 
489 
S85 
494 
551 
594 
661 
014 
794 
741 
244 
501 
213 
019 
321 
740 
611 
875 
348 
536 
972 
258 
507 



42 

46 

82 

85 

106 

87 

no 

108 

90 

96 

93 
93 
94 
95 
93 



84 



87 

90 

88 

97 

92 

91 

96 

102 

122 

IIS 

54 

18 

102 

95 

III 

143 

160 

213 

195 

212 



$11 250 

11 356 
15 100 
15 520 

17 740 

17 850 

15 284 

12 810 

14 160 

15 738 

15 372 

16 740 

17 100 
16 200 
16 346 
15 327 

14 sio 

13 954 

13 955 

15 280 

14 502 

15 200 
IS 333 

15 877 

29 338 

14 873 

16 050 
24 592 

30 021 

17 107 

11 64s 
3 669 

18 706 

12 999 

15 856 

20 571 

24 287 

35 524 

33 opi 

31 820 



753 047 
100 613 
150 532 
186 709 
224 127 
214 113 
214 771 
240 176 
238 175 
272 486 
315 900 
338 167 
322 823 
357 047 
307 822 
398 759 
364 67s 
376 982 
464 669 
463 299 
480 761 

502 684 
521 953 
560 820 
596 846 
583 064 
58s 601 
586 234 
615 256 
628 727 
641 173 
662 122 
681 161 
685 100 
702 965 
721 126 
735 073 
763 IIS 
772 958 

503 667 



Most of the significant fluctuations that occur in the figures given 
here may be explained by corresponding changes in the laws and ordi- 
nances governing teachers classes. The increase in attendance, num- 
ber of classes and appropriations is fairly regular until i860, when 
the number of males decreased rapidly from 711 to 297 in 1865; 



this 



''' Only the last part of the academic year designated is written 
column; i. e. 1850 means the school year i'849-50. 

°° This includes the numbers of persons in the State between the ages of 
4 and 21, except the first number, which is the number of persons between 
the ages of 5 and 16. 

°' Sup't Rept. 18^8, p. 6. 

** Ibid., 1859, p. V 

" Ibid., 1863, p. S. 

'"Ibid.. i8r6. p. iQ. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS 165 

then during the next six years it rose again to 582. It appears that 
the enhstment of young men in the army during the Civil War was 
the probable cause of the decline.''^ The fact that the number of 
females enrolled increased more than 200 from 1859 to 1865 leads 
to the same conclusion. However, the decrease of males from 711 
to 622 between 1859 and i860 could scarcely have been due to the 
approaching war. 

The decided rise in attendance and funds from the State in 1874 
is readily explained by generous payment for the instruction of 
teachers and by the mill tax. The repeal of those provisions the next 
year explains the decline in the figures. The eflfect of the law of 
1877 is apparent in the numbers given for that year and the two fol- 
lowing, and the failure of the revenue from the United States deposit 
fund brought the total enrolment down to 321 in two years time. 
The increased demands of the Regents in 1883 checked the number 
of classes and the enrolment for that year only. 

The apparent decrease in the school population of the State for 
certain years, for example, 1875, is accounted for by the Superin- 
tendent. It was due to a poor system of collecting and reporting 
statistics. While the school population increased about 64 per cent, 
the number of pupils in teachers classes increased 350 per cent. 

b Efficiency 

Apart from the number of pupils enrolled as shown by statistics, 
there is a question of the real value of the teachers classes in supply- 
ing the common schools with better teachers, of the quality of 
instruction in elementary subjects and methods included in the 
course of study, and of general efficiency. The official reports and 
records contain evidence that indicates the efifectiveness and excel- 
lence of the work of teacher-training. However, numerous expres- 
sions occur that suggest that the work was often formal and of 
little value; so the question of efficiency can not be answered 
categorically. It will be sufficient to call attention here to a number 
of criticisms both unfavorable and favorable, to afford a basis for 
an intelligent opinion on the question. 

The Regents expressed their doubts of the wisdom of the teachers 
classes as organized in 1857, and suggested some radical changes. 



^ "And a patriotic impulse compels me to add, that of the one hundred 
and twenty-five young men of those who had been under my own tuition in 
the academy, in the ten years previous to 1864, who cheerfully gave them- 
selves to their country's service in the late rebellion, sixty-seven of them 
had been good and tried members of the teachers class." Proceedings of 
University Convocation, 1868, p. 61, 62. 



l66 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

They say : " With few exceptions these have been taught with the 
other pupils of the academy, and no additional teacher has been 
employed for such instruction. In many of the academies some 
professional instruction has been given, while in others it does not 
appear that the instruction has, to any important extent, differed 
from that of the other pupils." ^^ 

The next year they mention the large number of academies and 
the small fee paid to each as causes of " very little specific instruc- 
tion " having been given. "^ In commenting upon the improved con- 
dition of the classes some years later, the Regents state that in the 
past the teaching in them had often been " a matter of form, and 
with an apparent desire, in some instances, principally to secure the 
sum which the State agrees to pay." ^* The same thought is 
expressed more emphatically in another place : " Too often in the 
past has it been a just subject of reproach, that the payments made 
to the academies for the instruction of teachers classes, were only a 
species of gratuity, and that in many cases the service was merely a 
pretense." ^^ 

The Chancellor of the University in criticizing the teachers classes 
as they had been conducted previous to 1882 said: " We have felt, 
and no man has felt it more than I have, that during these forty 
years in which we have been applying the money of the State to 
teachers classes, the application has often been very improper, 
because the service performed was not good." '^^ 

But despite numerous disparaging expressions, an abundance of 
evidence pointing to the efficiency of the teacher-training efforts 
appears in the sources. When the results of the first year of the 
system adopted in 1849 were known, the literature committee of the 
Senate, judging from the following passage, thought the work had 
been successful : " In view of the great benefits which have arisen 
from the grant of money to such academies as might instruct in the 
science of common school teaching, during the years 1850 and 185 1, 
provision (we recommend) be made by law for the continuance of 
such grant." "^ 

In the Regents Reports of 1866 and 1867 the following occurs: 
" It is due to most of the academies to say that they have faithfully 
performed what the law and ordinances of the Regents have required 



"Regents Rep't, 1857, p. 27, 28. 

"Ibid., i8s8, p. 17. 

"Ibid., 1878, p. xii. 

"Ibid., 1882, p. xxiii. 

" Ibid., 1883, p. 416. 

*' Senate Documents, 1851, v. 2, no. 58, p. 12. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS 167 

of them, and that the effect has been apparent in the improved char- 
acter of teachers of common schools." *'^ 

Previous to that time the Regents said, the system of teachers 
classes " appears to present very prosperous results,"^® and also stated 
that, " No change has been made during the past year in the pre- 
scribed course of study, and the Regents are gratified in the evi- 
dences which are before them of its *aore faithful prosecution, both 
on the part of teachers and pupils." '^° 

In 1 881 the Regents asserted that the teachers classes in academies 
were an effective and economical way of training teachers.'''^ 

The account that Principal Noah T. Clarke of Canandaigua has 
written of his personal experience for a period of thirty-one years 
in the teacher-training work of that academy, affords a close view 
of the character of instruction given in the teachers departments, 
or classes. He says : 

Upon entering Canandaigua Academy, in April 1837, I found the teachers 
department in full operation. The " teachers class " numbered about thirty 
young men, and was mainly under the instruction of the principal, the late 
Mr Henry Howe. The time of the class was about half of it spent in 
the " teachers " course of study. That course consisted in studies and 
recitations of the common branches ; a daily drill upon the best methods of 
teaching; lectures upon the theory of teaching, and also upon geology, 
natural and mental philosophy, physical geography and history, upon warm- 
ing and ventilation, the laws of health, teachers associations, schoolhouses 
and blackboards, also upon the teacher's social habits and duties as a mem- 
ber of the community in which he might be placed. 

For three summers, of twenty-two weeks each, I was permitted to enjoy 
the privileges of that class; and I am free to say that, although I had 
taught school before, yet I found the instruction of that course of incalcula- 
ble value ; and if I have ever been able to accomplish anything as an 
instructor of youth, I owe it, in no small degree, to the exercises of that 
teachers class. The members of that department were eagerly sought for 
the best class of winter schools, and at wages from 10 to 33^^ per cent 
higher than the average of other teachers of the county. 

This department was maintained under similar circumstances, and with 
but little interruption, until about 1848. In that year, the trustees of the 
academy spoke of the teachers department as follows : "A teachers class 
was first organized in this academy in 1830. Since that time nearly five 
hundred young men have entered this department." It is true that members 
of this department were not then, as now, required to pledge themselves 



'Regents Rep't, 1866, p. 19; ibid., 1867, p. xxii. 
'Ibid., 1853, p. 14. 

'Ibid., i860, p. 12; also repeated in the report of 1861. 
' Ibid., 1881, p. xiv. 



l68 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

to teach common schools for any length of time; yet most, if not all of 
them, did engage in teaching more or less. Upon the resignation of Mr 
Howe, in 1849, my relation to the academy became more intimate, and since 
1853, when I assumed charge of the institution, I have been entirely familiar 
with this department of instruction, as it has fallen mainly within my own 
sphere of duty. This department has since that time, as well as before, 
been a distinct organization. The class has always been under a course of 
special training, similar, as far as it goes, to that of the state normal school. 
This course has always consisted, first, of thorough reviews and drills in 
the elementary studies ; second, of familiar lectures upon the theory of teach- 
ing and such other subjects as were pertinent to the teacher's work; third, 
of actual practice in teaching classes, under the eye of the instructor. . . . 
During the last eighteen years, nearly four hundred young men have been 
members of this department, making in all some nine hundred young men 
who, in one academy, by this most wise and judicious provision of the State, 
have been aided in their preparation for the teacher's work; and it is but 
simple justice and truth to say that the great majority of them took high 
positions among the teachers of our common schools, while not a few have 
proved themselves able and efficient instructors in our high schools and 
academies." 

School commissioners often expressed favorable opinions of the 
work of academies in training teachers. A few are repeated here as 
illustrations. 

Our very best teachers are derived from the pupils instructed in the 
teachers classes in our academies, and I think the wisdom displayed by the 
Regents in their selection of schools to instruct such classes has been 
praiseworthy.'^ 

The teachers classes in Cortlandville and Cincinnatus are rendering val- 
uable aid in qualifying the teachers of the county.'* 

The teachers department of this institution, I am pleased to say, is under 
the control of Prof. Hoose, who has fulfilled the duties of his position to 
the entire satisfaction of parties interested. I am pleased to say the professor 
has sent out some of the best teachers ; those who are an honor to the pro- 
fession, and an honor to the institution that prepared them for their noble 
work.'' 

Similar expressions are found on pages 205, 230, 241, 328 and 377 
of the twelfth annual report of the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. 

But adverse criticism of teachers departments by school commis- 
sioners was not lacking. The following two examples are typical : 

In visiting the institution. I had some conversation with the principal in 
regard to teachers class. Mr Nichols said he thought such a class did not 
receive the benefit expected by the Regents of the University, and he did 
not care to have a teachers class in the academy.'* 



" Proceedings of the University Convocation, 1868, p. 60, 61. 
'* Sup't Rep't, 1866, p. 120. 
'-Ibid., p. 148. 
" Ibid., p. 193- 
'• Ibid., p. 150. 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS I69 

I have taken some jjains to compare the members of the teachers class 
with other teachers, and I confess I see no difference. I doubt the propriety 
of spending so large a portion of the public money for such purposes.'" 

No doubt the teachers classes were neither entirely deficient nor 
were they highly efficient. It is impossible to say accurately, judg- 
ing by our present standards, just how successful they were, but 
the following statement is probably not far from the truth : " In a 
large number of institutions the work done has always been of the 
most faithful and intelligent kind. But in others, owing sometimes 
to a lack of skill on the part of the teachers, and sometimes to care- 
lessness and unfaithfulness, the instruction was very imperfect." "^ 

Summary 

Near the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, about 
forty years after the academy system was established, the fact that 
the academies were training a large number of the teachers for 
the elementary schools was recognized by the leaders in educational 
affairs. It seems that the need for good teachers in the elementary 
schools, which the State had established in 1813, drew attention to 
the academies as the best agencies for meeting the new conditions. 
Thus the problem of teacher-training courses in secondary schools 
arose. 

But as there was no precedent for such a plan of training teachers, 
a period of experimentation, learning by the trial and success method, 
ensued. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, an influential 
number of statesmen and educators thought that normal schools, 
similar to those of Prussia and other European countries, should be 
the exclusive means of preparing teachers for the elementary schools. 
However, a majority favored using the academies, in which the 
State had invested large sums, for that purpose. Although the latter 
plan was followed from 1827 until 1843, no well-established policy 
of administering the nonnal departments in academies prevailed. 
Prior to 1827 the teacher-training of academies received no legal 
recognition, and until 1834 remained unorganized and not directly 
supported by the State. The first plan adopted by the Regents was 
to limit the number of departments, and to provide a thorough 
academic and professional education for the prospective teachers. 
Since the influence of the system conducted upon that plan was not 
extensive enough, the number of normal departments was increased. 
The law passed in 1837 which placed the system under the Super- 



Ibid., p. 246. 
' Regents Rept's, 1883, p. xxii. 



170 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

intendent of Public Instruction was unfortunate. A year later the 
situation was confused by requiring all the academies that received 
$700 or more a year from the State to maintain teachers depart- 
ments. In 1 841 the number of academies that were especially 
appointed to instruct pupil-teachers and to receive appropriations 
for that purpose from the State, was increased from eight to sixteen. 
Two years later the whole system was abandoned by the State for 
six years. 

The financial limitations were always a serious handicap to the 
success of the plan. With less than $5000 a year, about $6 for each 
pupil enrolled, for the work, the Regents and the State Superin- 
tendents vacillated between the alternatives of maintaining a few 
relatively strong normal departments, or a larger number of weaker 
ones. The trustees and the principals of the academies concerned 
could not plan their teachers classes with the assurance that the State 
would continue its support. These conditions of inadequate financial 
support and wavering administrative policy contributed to the grow- 
ing dissatisfaction with the system. The unreasonable demands of 
many who expected that the pittance expended would give the State 
thousands of well-trained teachers, was an additional factor that 
led to dissatisfaction and the abandonment of the teacher depart- 
ments in academies. 

After the teacher-training system was reestablished in 1849 under 
the Regents, its improvement and growth were rapid. The dual 
administrative organization of public education whereby the Regents 
were in control of secondary schools and the State Superintendent 
was in charge of the elementary schools, for a number of years 
caused no serious difficulty. However, the friction between the two 
departments led in time to conditions that were unfavorable to the 
success of the teacher-training work, and at the request of both 
Regents and Superintendent the normal departments were trans- 
ferred to the supervision of the State Superintendent in 1889. After 
this change very few academies continued their teachers classes, 
and within a few years such classes were conducted entirely by high 
schools. For this reason, an account of the teacher-training work 
in academies of the State might well close with this date, 1889. 

Co }i elusions 

The evidence brought out in the foregoing account of the teacher- 
training system in incorporated academies justifies the following 
conclusions : 



EDUCATING TEACHERS FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS l"/! 

1 In 1834 New York provided a definite system of academic and 
professional education for teachers in elementary schools, and was 
the first state in this country to provide a systematic preparation 
for that purpose. 

2 The fact that the incorporated academies were used as a means 
of providing trained teachers for the elementary schools, strength- 
ened the bond between those academies and the State, and was an 
important factor in their continuance as the principal secondary 
schools until the beginning of the third quarter of the nineteenth 
century. 

3 Available statistical records show that many thousands of 
teachers for elementary schools, after 1850 about one-fourth of the 
number employed, were educated in the normal departments of 
academies. But the number of such teachers prepared by academies 
and not officially reported was even larger at certain periods than 
the number in the statistical report. Before 1849 the majority of 
the academies were not appointed to conduct teachers classes, and 
made no report of the number of their students who received 
instruction in pedagogy or who taught after they left the academy. 
It is probable that three-fourths of the elementary school teachers 
were prepared for their work in the secondary schools. 

4 It is impossible to measure accurately the efficiency of the 
normal departments that were conducted in the academies. Typical 
contemporary expressions, some complimentary and some disparag- 
ing, are quoted above. Some of the latter may be accounted for by 
the fact that the whole academy system was under criticism, which 
might have extended to the teacher-training departments irrespec- 
tive of their value. It is also significant that most of the adverse 
criticism came from officials of the elementary school system, who 
were probably prejudiced. Judging by the demand for the teachers 
trained in the normal departments and the higher salaries paid them 
by school directors, it is evident that they were superior to the 
other elementary teachers. On the whole, it seems that the acad- 
emies sent out the best teachers available for the elementary schools. 



172 



THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



CHAPTER VII 

General Conclusions 

For convenience, the general conclusions drawn from the preced- 
ing chapters may be grouped under three heads : ( i ) A statement 
of the more important historical facts; (2) an explanation of those 
facts in terms of certain related conditions, the causes corresponding 
to the facts mentioned; (3) the influence of the academy system 
upon later development of secondary education. The first of these 
three may be verified by reference to definite data ; but the other two 
are to some extent, a matter of inference and less certain. 

Conclusions Based upon a Summary of Historical Data and Facts 
a TIic Academy Period 
Academies were incorporated in greatest numbers in New York 
during the decade following 1835, and more were incorporated the 
first five years of that period than in any other five years. Although 
academies had reached their maximum rate of growth at that time, 
they had not yet developed to their full extent. The largest number 
of academies, excluding high schools, that reported to the Regents 
was reached about i860, but the maximum attendance in academies 
occurred about 1855. It is evident that, judged by numbers, acad- 
emies in the State of New York were at their height between 1855 
and i860. They were, however, the principal secondary schools of 
the State until 1875, when they were outnumbered by high schools, 
although the attendance in the academies was still greater than in the 
latter. 

Table 33 

A comparison of the number of academies incorporated at different periods 
in Massachusetts and New York 



1780-85.. 
1786-90. . , 
1791-95.- 
1 796-1 800 
1801-05.. 
1806-10. . , 
1811-1S... 
1816-20... 
1821-25... 
1826-30. . . 



M.\SS.\- 


NEW 




CHL'SETTS 


YORK 




S 







I 


4 




7 


II 




4 


4 




7 


4 




4 


4 




2 


10 




6 


7 




4 


2 




28 


29 





1831-35... 
1836-10... 
1841-45... 

l8.:6-so... 

1851-55... 
1856-60... 
1861-65... 

1 866-70. .. 
1871-75... 

Totals 



M.\SSA- 
CHUSETTS 



169 



NEW 
YORK 



61 
40 
29 
47 
23 
15 
IS 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 1/3 

In Massachusetts, academies had ceased to dominate secondary 
education about the middle of the century,^ a condition which did 
not occur until twenty-five years later in New York. It seems that 
the academy period in all states ended between those two dates. 
According to Dexter, the academy " from the time of the Revolu- 
tion, until the middle of the nineteenth century was the undisputed 
leader in secondary education." ^ Brown says the academy was 
the dominant institution of secondary education for a century after 
the Revolution.^ 

b Educational Facilities Afforded by Academics 

The opportunities for an advanced education provided by acad- 
emies in New York is seen by a comparison of the number of 
academies and the number of children in the State of school age. 
Academies were numerous enough to provide secondary education 
for all who desired it, especially near the middle of the nineteenth 
century. However, a number of conditions that rendered academies 
less accessible than indicated by their numbers, prevailed. The 
small tuition fee was doubtless a barrier to many. Many large vil- 
lages, and even some cities, were not provided with incorporated 
academies. This made it necessary for a large proportion of the 
pupils to live away from home while attending school. 

The distribution of academies in urban and rural communities is 
illustrated by the situation in 1855. That year, 92 of the 155 acad- 
emies reporting to the Regents were located in villages of less than 
1000 population or in nonurban communities. About 15 of the other 
63 were in cities of over 8000 inhabitants. Of the 13 cities in the 
State, 2 (Oswego and Syracuse) were without a Regents academy; 
and 1 01 incorporated villages of over 1000 population had no 
academy.* This relative isolation of academies limited their 
usefulness. 

c Significance of Instruction Gii'cn in Academies 
Academies served as preparatory schools for the greater number 
of those entering college, but this was a comparatively small part of 
the function of those schools. The proportion of those enrolled in 
academies who intended to enter college was always small, until near 
the close of the nineteenth century. 



' Inglis, The Rise of the High School in Massachusetts, p. 150. 
^ Boone, Edu-ration in the United States, p. go. 
^ Brown, The Alaking of Our Middle Schools, p. 228. 

* Census for the State of New York for 1855, P- i-i5 and 18-23. Regents 
Rep't, 1856, p. 212-18. 



174 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

The most important work of academies was the education of many- 
thousands who depended upon the academy alone to prepare them 
for the duties of life. The records do not show the number of 
academy students who achieved success or distinction in life; but nO' 
doubt the greater number of the men and women who were promi- 
nent in the State during the past generation were educated wholly 
or in part in an academy. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, 
except the few who entered college, all who sought an education 
beyond the rudiments turned toward the academies. 

The service of academies in educating teachers for common schools 
was undoubtedly of great importance. For a half century before 
the State had established a normal school, academies were supplying 
teachers with an academic education and for a part of that time 
with a professional training. Even after normal schools were in 
operation, academies continued to furnish the greater number of 
common school teachers.^ 

A body of professional secondary school teachers was also inci- 
dentally trained and developed by experience in the service of acad- 
emies. The average number of teachers in an academy was less- 
than three in 1827, but by 1883 had increased to about six. In 1830,. 
the total number of teachers in Regents academies was 160, in 1840,. 
571, and in 185 1, about 730.^ In 1857, al~)0ut 70 per cent of the 
academy teachers reported that they intended to make teaching a 
profession. From that time, the proportion of professional teachers 
increased, and in 1885 nearly all had adopted teaching as a perma- 
nent vocation. The academic training of those teachers can not be 
readily determ.ined ; the State required no definite preparation of 
them, but the records show that nearly two-thirds of the principals 
of academies were college graduates.'^ 

d Innovations 
A number of innovations in secondary education, most of which- 
have already been mentioned, may be traced to academies, (i) The 
extension of the purpose of secondary schools to provide a general 

' It was said in 1898, that since 1844 the teachers classes in academies 
" have ceased to occupy so prominent a part in the training of teachers." 
This seems to be a misconception. In the ten years from 1834 to 1844, 3389 
pupil-teachers were instructed in such classes ; while in the ten years from 
1850 to i860, 17,195 pupil-teachers were enrolled in teacher-training classes 
in academies. Measured by results achieved, academies have been many 
times more prominent in educating teachers ; but they have not attracted so^ 
much attention in that work since 1844 as they did when the teacher-training 
classes were a novelty, and in this sense it is true that they have been less 
prominent. Cf. Hillis, A. P., " The Oswego Normal School," p. 8. 

" Historical and Statistical Record of the University of the State of New 
York, p. 504. 

' Ibid., p. 504, 576 flF. 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 175 

and immediately practical education for those not intending to enter 
college, was an idea that first found extensive application in acad- 
emies. (2) The introduction of much new subject matter into the 
curriculum, until nearly all subjects were offered, led to a more 
liberal and rational course of study than was found in Latin gram- 
mar schools. (3) The higher education of girls was not provided 
for in any schools preceding academies. Girls attended the latter 
schools even before the close of the eighteenth century.^ The num- 
ber of boys attending academies in the State of New York was 
somewhat greater than the number of girls until 1847, when there 
were 7007 boys and 7275 girls enrolled. Except for the four years 
beginning with 1857 and the year 1895, when there were a few more 
boys than girls, the girls remained in the majority until the close of 
the century. In 1900, there were 1280 more girls than bo}s enrolled 
in academies.^ In view of these facts, it is surprising to find the 
statement, that " the academies had been for the most part for boys 
alone, while the public demanded equal secondary school privileges 
for boys and girls." ^° The records show that more girls than boys 
attended academies from 1842, when the numbers of boys and 
girls were first reported separately, to the close of the century. 
(4) Teacher-training classes. The professional training of teachers 
in secondary schools for elementary schools was first attempted on 
an extensive and systematic plan in the incorporated academies of 
the State of New York. This innovation was adopted by a number 
of states, and is at the present time more depended upon than ever 

before. 

e Religious Instruction in Academics 

Religious instruction was made a definite aim of practically all 
academies. One of the topics that received much emphasis by those 
in control of academies was the religious training of the pupils. 
Scarcely any prospectus or catalog of an academy failed to specify 
religious education as a part of the daily program. Bible reading, 
church attendance, attendance at the religious services of the school, 
and similar practices were often required. ^^ 



* These three features were probably characteristic of academies generally 
throughout the United States. Cf. Inglis, op. cit., p. 150. Graves, Frank 
Pierrepont, "A Student's History of Education," p. 414. 

* Hough, _ op. cit., p. 503, 504; Education Dep't, Annual Rep't, 1914, p. 857. 
" Education Dep't, Annual Rep't, 1905, p. 52. 

"References on this point to a few catalogs of academies are inserted here; 
many more of a similar kind are available: Catalog of Mount Pleasant 
Academy, 1837, p. 8; Catalog of Irving Institute, 1840, p. 4; Catalog of 
Rhinebeck Academy, 1849, p. 14; Third Report of the Trustees of the Oneida 
Institute of Science and Industry, 1831, p. 6, 7. 



1/6 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

Although rehgious instruction prevailed generally in academies, 
all sectarian teachings were excluded from every school in the Uni- 
versity, and only a very few of them, until after 1890, were con- 
trolled by religious organizations. 

Conditions that Contributed to the Results of the Academy System 
\ a Organization: a Part of the University 

^ The principal element of strength in the academy system of New 

York was its organization under the Regents of the University. This 
provided for the supervision and wise direction of the incorpo- 
rated academies and gave them a legal status, prestige and other 
advantages. 

Some of the ways in which the Regents strengthened the system 
were: (i) A high and continually advancing standard of scholarship 
was required of all schools in the University; (2) guarding against 
the establishment of transient and temporary schools, by demand- 
ing a liberal endowment fund and adequate property usually was 
effective; (3) the annual reports published and distributed kept 
the local authorities informed of the requirements of the Regents, 
and furnished a stimulus to good work by comparing the records 
of individual schools ; (4) the state funds distributed annually 
relieved the financial condition of academies, and encouraged them 
to comply with the laws and ordinances; (5) visitation by appointed 
officers or committees, so far as it was practised, brought academies 
into closer relation with the Regents; (6) since the establishment 
of academies was voluntary, they were usually founded only in those 
communities where public sentiment was strong enough to insure 
loyal support. 

h Slow Dcz'clopment of the Free School System 
The slow development of the free school system favored the 
growth and continuation of schools supported by tuition. Acade- 
mies of the old type could not thrive after rate bills were finally 
abolished. Had free public schools been realized in 1850, the transi- 
tion from academies to public high schools would probably have 
occurred much earlier and more rapidly. 

c Effects of Democracy 
The growth of democratic sentiment in the last part of the 
eighteenth century is often assigned as a cause of the advent of 
academies. It seems that the further realization of the implications 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 1/7 

of the same principle was a fundamental cause of the transition 
from academies to high schools. Equal educational opportunities 
for poor and rich were thought to be an essential part of democratic 
government, and the extension of this idea to secondary education 
meant a change in the system of secondary schools. Further 
development of the same tendency that gave rise to academies led 
to their overthrow. 

d Population of the State 

New York is conspicuous among other states for the large num- 
ber of academies established. After the first part of the century, 
none of the other states approached her in this respect; and after 
1 841, more academies were established in New York than in all the 
other six states combined.^^ 

That this condition was not due entirely to the superior system 
under which the New York system of academies was organized and 
maintained, is indicated by a consideration of the population of the 
several states. From 1830 to 1890, the population of New York 
was about three times that of Massachusetts, and from about two- 
thirds to five-sixths that of all the other states combined.^^ One 
would expect a greater number of schools in New York on account 
of the excess population. But after making allowance for this 
factor, the comparison is still favorable to New York. 

Influence of Academies on Later Development 
Academies prepared the way for high schools. Methods, curri- 
culums, practices, organization and support of secondary education 
that prevail at the present time in high schools, had their beginnings 
in the academy system. All the innovations mentioned above, coedu- 
cation, provision for practical life, a liberal curriculum, and the 



" It is necessary to remember in this connection that the data are incom- 
plete, and the relations might be changed by the complete figures for all the 
states. 

For example, Kilpatrick in an unpublished study gives the following data 
for the state of Georgia : 

Academies incorporated 
1780-1789, 5 probable 
1 790-1799, 5 probable 
1800-1809, 4 at least 
1809-1819, 17 at least 
1820-1829, 107* at least 
1830-1839, 256* at least 

" Census Rep'ts, Twelfth Census of the United States, Taken in the Year 
1900, V. I, p. xxii, xxiii. 



♦Not all strictly academies. 



178 THE ACADEMY SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

training of teachers for elementary schools, which were first realized 
in academies, have been continued in some degree in high schools. 

The support of advanced schools by taxation was the culmination 
of a number of steps toward that end. Public opinion had to be 
convinced of the value of advanced education, of the necessity of 
secondary schools, and of public support for such institutions. The 
principle that public wealth might be used to support advanced edu- 
cation was recognized by the Legislature in the eighteenth century, 
but its extensive application was a result of later growth. Generous 
voluntary support and local taxation were made customary by the 
academy system; and those practices helped to lead the public to the 
establishment of tax-supported high schools. 

Conservative influences tended to continue academies long after 
conditions were favorable for high schools, and in that way to 
obstruct the growth of the latter. Had all state academies been 
abolished in 1850, free secondary education as it exists today might 
have been accomplished earlier. Inertia of custom and conservatism 
tend to preserve institutions that have lost their usefulness. The 
academy system after the middle of the nineteenth century was prob- 
ably not an unqualified advantage to the educational interests of the 
State. 

An attempt was made to establish normal schools in the State a 
quarter of a century before the first one was opened at Albany in 
1844. As a majority had thought that academies afforded a suffi- 
cient means for training teachers, normals were delayed.^* 

The academy system was well adapted to the social, political and 
economic conditions of the times in which it thrived. It served the 
purpose for which it was established, and led to a more effective 
system. 



Cf. Graves, op. cit., p. 260. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I Sources 
(a) Documents and Contemporary Writings 

Benedict, E. C. An address at the First Anniversary of the Free Academy of 

New York, New York, 1850. 
Brooklyn. Annual report of the Superintendent of Schools 1857. 
Griscom, John. Address at the Opening of the New York High School, New York 

1825. 
Lincoln, Charles Z. Messages from the Governors, Albany 1919. (Found also 

in the Journals of the Senate and the Assembly of the State of New York.) 
New York (State). Documents of the Senate and the Assembly, Albany — 1830- 

1900. 
New York (State) . Journals of the Senate and the Assembly — Albany — 1 784- 

1900. 
New York (State). Session Acts, Albanv, 1 778-1900. 
New York (State). Superintendent of Common Schools, Annual Reports. 

Albany, 1814-1854- — (Secretary of State ex-officio 1822-1854). 
New York (State). Superintendent of Public Instruction, Annual Reports, 

Alban}^ i 855-1904. 
New York (State). Education Department, Annual Reports, Albanv, 1905- 

1914. 
New York District School Journal (The.) Published by authority of the Legis- 
lature of the State of New York, Albany, 1 840-1 850. 
New York Historial Society, Collection, Series I, Vol. V, New York, 1830. 
O'Callaghan, Edmund Bailey. The Documentary^ History of the State of New 

York, Albany, 1849-1851. 
Pratt, Daniel J. Annals of Public Education in the State of New York, Albany, 

1869-1870-1873-1874-1876-1883 (In the Annual Reports of the Regents). 
Rodenbeck, Adolph J. The Statutory Record of Unconsolidated Laws, Albany, 

1911. 
University of the State of New York. Annual Reports, Albany, 1 788-1904. 

(Referred to as Regents' Reports.) 
University of the State of New York. Regents' Instructions, Albany, 1834-1853. 
University of the State of New York. Regents' (University) Manual, Albany, 

1864-1888. (A continuation of Regents' Instructions'!. 
University of the State of New York. Proceedings of the University Convoca- 
tion. Albanv, 1864 (After 1865, printed in the Regents' Reports). 
University of the State of New York. Regents' Minutes, Albany, 1784- 1900. 
United States Commissioner of Education. Anniial Report for 1903-1904 — 

Washington, 1905. 

(b) Official Contemporary Literature of Individual Schools. 

Albany Female Academy. Circular and Catalogues of the, Albany, 1 843-1 855. 
Berkeley School (New York City.) Register for 1899-1900 — No place — No 

date. 
Brooklyn Female Academy. Circular and Catalogue of the. New York, 1849. 
Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the, 

Rochester, 1840. 
Irving Institute. Catalogue of, New York, 1840. 
Mount Pleasant Academy. Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students with 

an Exposition of Mount Pleasant Academy for the year 1836 — Mount 

Pleasant, 1837. 
North Granville Ladies' Seminary. Fourth Annual Catalogue of the Officers, 

Instructors, Patrons, and Pupils, North Granville, 1859. 
Oneida Institute of Science and Industry'. Third Report of the Trustees of the, 

Utica, 1 83 1. 
Rhinebeck Academy. Catalogue of, Rhinebeck, 1849. 
St. Thomas' Hall. Circular of , Flushing, L. I., 1841. 

[179] 



I So BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Van Doren's (Messers.) Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies, Brooklyn 

Heights, 1829. 

Note : — The catalogs of Berkeley school and Oneida Institute of Science and 
Industry' mentioned above are in the New York City Library, Fifth Avenue and 
42d Street; all the others are in Bryson Library, Teachers College, Columbia 
University, New York Cit3^ 

II. Writings Other Than Sources 

Albany Academy. Celebration of the Semi-centennial Anniversary, Albany, 

1863. 
Boone, Richard G. Education in the United States, New York, 1893. 
Broome, Edwin C. A Historical and Critical Discussion of College Admission 

Requirements, New York, 1903. 
Brown, Elmer Ellsworth. The Making of our Middle Schools, New York, 1902. 
Butler, Nicholas Murray. Monographs on Education in the United ^States, 

Vol. I, No. 4, (Secondary Education, by Elmer Ellsworth Brown), Albany, 

1900. 
The Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Founding of the Albany 

Academy, Albany, 1914. 
Clews, Elsie W. Educational Legislation and Administration of the Colonial 

Governments, New York, 1899. 
Fairbanks, Mrs. A. W. Troy Female Seminary, New York, 1898. 
Fitzpatrick, Edward A. The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt 

Clinton, New York, 191 1. 
Graves, Frank Pierrepont. A Student's History of Education, New York, 1915. 
Hartwick Seminary, The Semi-centennial Anniversary, Albany, 1866. 
Heydrick, B. A. Academies in the United States, 1907. (Manuscript in the 

Bryson Library, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.) 
Hough, Franklin B. Historical and Statistical Record of the University of the 

State of New York during the Century from 1784 to 1884, Albany, 1885. 
Hough, Franklin B. History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, Albany, 

1853- 
Inglis, Alexander James. The Rise of the High School in Massachusetts, New 

York, 1911. 
Kemp, W. W. The Support of Schools in Colonial New York by the Society for 

the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, New York, 1913. 
Kilpatrick, William Heard. The Dutch School of the New Netherlands and 

Colonial New York, Washington, 191 2. 
Lowville Academy, Semi-centennial Anniversary. 
Monroe, Paul. Cyclopedia of Education, New York, 1911-1913. Articles: 

Academy; Grammar School; New York, State of. 
Monroe, Paul. Principles of Secondary Education, New York, 191 4. 
Sherwood, Sidney. University of the State of New York. History of Higher 

Education in the State of New York, Albany, 1893. 
Strong, Thomas H. The History of the Flat Bush in Kings County, New York, 

1842. 
Wickersham, James Pyle. History of Education in Pennsylvania, Lancaster, 

Pa., 1886. 



VITA 

The author of this monograph, George Frederick Miller, was born 
near Farmington, Missouri, May lo, 1880. He attended a rural 
school from 1887 until 1896, and then attended Carleton College, 
Farmington, Missouri, until 1903. He attended Cape Girardeau, 
Missouri, State Normal School one year, 1904-05, and the University 
of Missouri part time from 1907 until 1912, when he received the 
B. S. degree from the latter institution. He taught rural schools in 
Missouri for three years, and in high schools in Missouri, Kentucky, 
and Illinois five years. He attended Teachers College, Columbia 
University two years, 1913-15. 

[181] 



I TBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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